The contract research organisation (CRO) announced its expansion plans last October. Xcelience has been operating in the Tampa area for 10 years but split from its parent company MDS last year and formed a new firm with the technology to get active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) directly into capsules.
According to Xcelience, its technology, called Xcelodose, can bypass much formulation work since it removes the need for excipients that are normally required for filling purposes and associated stability studies, helping to shorten the drug development process.
"The demand for Xcelience's services in the areas of Formulation Development and support to the Pharmaceutical Industries' demand of early clinical development needs has been a major driver for the current growth of Xcelience," said Randall Guthrie, vice president of Xcelience.
"This expansion will pave the way for continuing to support our clients' drug development needs into the future with their current and future projects."
By focusing solely on the preformulation, formulation, analytical and manufacturing fields, Xcelience now believes it has the edge in what is widely seen as a saturated market.
The new facility, located close to the current headquarters, will double Xcelience's capacity.
"Our sponsors' trust in our work has grown our business to the point of needing more space. We will continue to operate out of both facilities so as not to interrupt our operations," said Derek Hennecke, CEO.
According to a recent report by market research firm Applied Data Research (ADR), contract formulation firms such as Xcelience are being increasingly relied upon to ease drug development bottlenecks being created by new drug discovery technologies.
The discovery of new drug candidates is accelerating faster than ever before thanks to the availability of new tools for automating the laboratory processes involved, however, further development of these new chemical entities (NCEs) through the pipeline often hits a stumbling block at the formulation stage.
At this point, many biopharma firms lack the infrastructure or the know-how in formulation science to bring their own products forward and are turning to third-party services firms - many whom offer proprietary formulation processes - for assistance.
According to ADR, much of the current focus in new drug formulations is concerned with processes that can improve the solubility of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).
There are currently, however, only a limited number of contract formulation firms that can provide the type of specialist services that pharma firms are demanding. As a result, this corner of the market has been earmarked as a high-potential growth sector by several contract manufacturers who have been making plans to move into or expand further in this area.
Xcelience also recently signed a technology acquisition alliance with UTEK Corporation, a firm focused on the transfer of new technology from universities to business, to review and potentially acquire new technologies.
The firm expects the collaboration with UTEK to give it early access to innovation in delivery systems, formulation components and manufacturing technology "to significantly broaden the services we can offer."
