Symbiosis to up capacity at Stirling sterile injectables site
The UK contractor plans to increase the size of its manufacturing area by 20% and add a temperature controlled storage area at its facility at the Stirling University Innovation Park in Scotland.
Symbiosis was set up to provide fill/finish services for biopharmaceuticals and small molecule drug products being examined in clinical trials.
However, in August last year Symbiosis was granted a manufacturer/importer license by the UK Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which enabled it to begin making commercial products.
The expansion reflects this and “the increased number of injectable drugs in development, increased biotech funding, and from more oncology and orphan drugs” Symbiosis said.
Global sterile drug contracting capacity has been hit by the closure of US contractor Ben Venue, which shut down for good in October 2013 after years of problems at its manufacturing facility in Bedford, Ohio.
In the UK capacity has also fallen. Last autumn Aesica pulled out of sterile injectables production – which was only ever a small part of its business – a few months after SCM Pharma lost its manufacturing license due to GMP violations at its site in Prudhoe.
Prior to that Moorfields Pharmaceuticals – a division of Moorfields Eye Hospital - was deemed to have breached GMP guidelines by the MHRA, which reduced UK capacity for ocular injectables.
