Shire Pharmaceuticals opens new technology centre in Baltimore
pharmaceutical technology centre at its Baltimore, Maryland plant
in order to improve its manufacturing capability.
The 19,000 square foot facility will allow the firm to relocate the testing and product validation process out of the manufacturing plant and into this adjacent building.
The firm said the new centre will optimise production efficiency as new products would be manufactured within the new facility before being transferred to the main production area.
"This state-of-the-art facility will allow Shire to optimise and trouble-shoot current manufacturing processes, using small-scale trials, to produce better yields and more consistent products," the company said.
Shire acquired Atlantic Pharmaceutical Services in Owings Mills near Baltimore in 2002 and has produced most of its major drugs in-house since then.
In the past fours years, the firm has enhanced the facilities manufacturing capacity, expanded the main warehouse by 38,000 square feet and added 150 new jobs, and the total investment to date tops $65m.
The Owings Mills facility is currently manufacturing the epilepsy treatment Carbatrol, Crohn's and colitis medication Pentasa, and Adderall XR, the market leading treatment option for people diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Shire said that although it wanted to focus its business on ADHD, human genetics therapies and gastrointestinal and renal diseases, the new structure was flexible enough to allow the firm to target new therapeutics areas, should opportunities arise through future merger and acquisitions.
