Manufacturing facilities: News in brief

Biggest pharmaceutical allergen production unit in the world​

Stallergenes has officially opened its new manufacturing facility, which it claims is the biggest pharmaceutical allergen production unit in the world.

The facility is located near Paris and has been designed to comply with European Medicines Agency (EMEA) and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards.

Desensitisation treatments will be produced at the site, primarily for the European and North American markets. In particular the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) contained in Oralair and Staloral will be produced on the site, which has received over €20m in investment.

Albert Saporta, CEO of Stallergenes, said: "For Stallergenes, this investment marks a major step forward. This new production unit will help the company break into the tough US market and increase its production capacity tenfold​."

Lentigen relocates operations​

Lentigen has relocated its corporate headquarters, research labs and manufacturing capacity from the University of Maryland to a site in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

The new 26,000 sq ft facility is located along Maryland's I-270 technology corridor and was chosen by Lentigen as the company believes it can accommodate its future growth needs.

Within the site are two self-contained suites measuring 4,900 sq ft that have been set aside for the simultaneous production of both lentiviral vectors (LVs) and proteins in compliance with current good manufacturing practices (cGMP).

Tim Ravenscroft, Lentigen's CEO, said: "The new facility provides an opportunity to expand our research programs. More importantly, the addition of the cGMP manufacturing suites will allow us to manage our programs from the labs through manufacturing to the clinic​.”

New facility houses cytotoxic robot​

B Braun Medical has begun building its £2m manufacturing facility, which upon completion will become the second site in the UK to house a particular kind of cytotoxic drug manipulating robot.

Ground has been broken at the site in Sheffield, which will manufacture drugs with a limited shelf life for distribution to 180 hospitals within a two-hour radius. The robot will manipulate highly toxic and time sensitive drugs for people undergoing chemotherapy.

Liam Grottick, managing director of B Braun Medical's aseptic manufacturing service, said: "With less than 10 cytotoxic robots in Europe this unit will add significant value to our existing pharmaceutical products and improve our portfolio of the latest in ground-breaking medical technology​."