Dive Brief:
- Lonza announced earlier this week that it is expanding its late-stage clinical and commercial-scale encapsulation capabilities for solid oral and inhaled dosage formulations in North America.
- The company is installing a new capsule-filling machine — the Harro Hӧfliger Modu-C MS encapsulation unit — at its Tampa, Florida, plant in order to speed drugs' time to market.
- The unit includes specialized drum-dosing technology for powder-in-capsule filling for oral solid dosage and dry-powder inhalation. Installation and validation of the unit is on track to be completed by February 2018.
Dive Insight:
Lonza expects the updates at the Tampa plant to expand its "full-service product-development capabilities and capacity to support process development, clinical trial and commercial scale manufacturing utilizing encapsulation."
The Tampa facility currently has the capacity to fill more than 15,000 capsules per day, but with the addition of the Harro unit, capacity will be greatly increased. Lonza says the unit is able to fill 72,000 capsules per hour.
In addition to these updates, the company is also adding a new dispensing area and two new processing suites that are expected to be completed by May 2018, adding further expertise for handling highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredient.
Lonza has been adding to its offerings at a rapid clip over the last few years. For example, it bought a Shire plc plant in California in October that increased its biologics manufacturing capabilities. A year earlier, the Swiss contract manufacturer acquired Capsugel for $5.5 billion, adding another 13 manufacturing sites worldwide.