Ashland to Expand Delaware Formulation and Contract Manufacturing

The chemical company - a supplier of formulations and services for the pharma industry - has announced plans to expand capabilities at its Centre of Excellence in Wilmington, Delaware and will be able to offer its customers formulation development contract manufacturing services for solid dispersions and oral solid dosages.

Richard R. Ruberti, Sr, Global Communications manager at Ashland, told Outsourcing-Pharma.com: “Overall, we're seeing a significant opportunity develop in solubilization and other drug delivery technologies in which we have an industry-leading portfolio of existing products and services.”​

Furthermore Ruberti said “By investing in early stage contract manufacturing including hot-melt and spray-drying capabilities,”​ the company “will become a unique resource positioned to help customers solve their formulation challenges and speed their overall time to market.”​

The expansion will combine Ashland’s ingredients with its technical support and will also benefit early-stage clinical trials by including spray-drying and extrusion processes, moved to Delaware from the company’s facility in Maryland.

In a press release President of Ashland Speciality Ingredients, John Panichella said that a “recent decision to provide incentives”​ by Delaware as a “commitment to business expansion”​ in the State had been “integral”​ to the expansion.

The Delaware Strategic Fund​ provides a number of incentives to encourage industry across the state and accounts pharma giant AstraZeneca as one of its early uptakers. Recently, containment manufacturer for the pharma industry ILC Dover has applied to take advantage of the state-sponsored grant.

Continued Investment​

Ruberti said that Ashland is “seeing a strong opportunity for long-term growth”​ by “investing in very early-stage contract manufacturing,” ​adopting a model that couples Ashland’s excipient portfolio with its formulation services.

Last year Ashland, announced it had a string of investments in the pipeline to accelerate its pharma unit growth following the purchase of ISP​ (International Speciality Products) for $3.2bn (€2.5bn). The purchase was intended to streamline supply chains for a number of players in both the pharma and cosmetics industry.

14 months ago Ashland increased capacity of tablet binder polyvinylpyrrolidine at its Texas plant and three months later announced it would be using its own technology, combined with coatings acquired in the ISP deal, in order to launch a new product line in the pharma excipients space.