Excelsyn unveiled two major developments for its UK-based pharma synthesis business Excelsyn Molecular Developments as part of the next stage in a revised business model.
The company is creating a "Synthesis-at-Speed team" to operate 24 hours on kilo scale and pilot plant API development projects at its facility in Holywell, North Wales in order to provide a faster service turnaround.
Commenting on the expected outcome of the new arrangement, Excelsyn Molecular Development's managing director David Rowles said: "Early phase project timelines can be anything up to 50 per cent quicker, while late phase projects also benefit from faster internal service."
"The fast response, high speed and quality emphasis in our new business model has led to repeat business from the majority of the 30 new customers signed over the past 18 months. This is a very promising foundation on which to build the extra capacity and capability in our planned new investment programme."
In addition, the firm said that after 18 months of steady growth for the small molecule synthesis business, it is now commissioning a three-phase, $10m (€7.6m) asset upgrade and expansion programme for its facility in Holywell, the first phase of which is expected to be completed this year.
Excelsyn Engineering Technology, the group's pharma design-and-build business, will be responsible for design, integration and commissioning of the new assets at Holywell while process improvement organisation Britest will be advising on process efficiency and intensification.
Meanwhile, SAFC, Sigma-Aldrich's custom manufacturing spin-off, said it has completed a 2,500 sq. ft. laboratory extension - the initial phase of a $600,000 two-stage expansion - at its Pharmorphix research facility in Cambridge, which performs solid form characterisation and research.
In particular, the services, including polymorph investigation, salt selection, physiochemical property determinations, pre-formulation profiling, co-crystallisation, classical chiral resolution and crystallisation studies, focus on understanding and modifying the physical properties of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) optimize product development and protect intellectual property.
The expanded laboratory will support expected growth in addition to developing leading-edge science and analytical techniques, said the firm.
In the second phase of the expansion, SAFC said it also expects to introduce additional X-ray crystallography equipment into the lab by the middle of the year.
Completion of a 2,500 sq. ft. laboratory extension will be followed by additional investment in spring 2007 as part of a $600,000 expansion program.
Meanwhile, last November, SAFC also announced plans to expand Pharmorphix' capabilities into the US with a new laboratory at its flagship high potency API facility in Madison, Wisconsin, expected to be operational in theis year's third quarter.
