Tee Noland, Director of Business Development for PTI – who has begun offering 100% turnkey tableting for effervescent and solid dose products at its manufacturing facility in Georgia, US - told Outsourcing-Pharma.com that US and Western CMOs had four main advantages over offshore manufacturers in, say, India and China:
“First is the cost of freight,” which is considerably lower, he said, being closer to the home markets.
He continued: “Second is customer service - we can compress the supply chain, allow our customers to hold less inventory, and typically respond faster and more effectively.
“Third is the level of regulatory compliance oversight that is needed to effectively manage a CMO. Typically it is going to cost more to have this oversight offshore vs. in the US.”
His fourth advantage was the automation of Western CMOs, citing the recent technology and turnkey solutions PTI has installed at its facility, which allows PTi to cut labour costs and therefore reduce the overall cost to the customer.
Turnkey Tableting at PTI
The expanded service at the facility was driven by a growing demand for the combined packaging and manufacturing services in the area of tableting, explained Noland, a service that is typically segmented by CMOs specialising in one area or the other.
He said: “Due to the scale of a recent opportunity, PTI felt it was most cost effective to provide both manufacturing and packaging in one continuous process.”
Noland also warned that within the industry “the biggest issue is trying to predict what technologies are the most necessary for future growth,” though he told us PTI were fortunate to have relationships with several large global pharma companies that help guide the direction of its technologies.
Expansion
In related news, PTI’s other facility in Missouri is to benefit from an extra 60,000 sq ft of cGMP space as the company expands its service offerings for future projects.
And Outsourcing-Pharma.com is visiting London, UK this week to report all the latest CMO news from GPCM (Global Pharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing).