Recipharm commits SEK5m to bioanalysis lab citing lack of Nordic capacity

By Gareth Macdonald

- Last updated on GMT

Recipharm commits SEK5m to bioanalysis lab citing lack of Nordic capacity

Related tags Sweden

Recipharm has said it will spend SEK5m ($567,000) on a bioanalysis laboratory in Sweden citing the lack of capacity in the Nordic region as a driver for the investment.

The contract manufacturing firm said it will build the new lab at a site in Uppsala, Sweden, explaining that the facility will have capacity to process 10,000 plasma samples a week.

Fredrik Lehmann, General Manager at Recipharm Development in Uppsala told us the laboratory will offer a range of bioanalysis services, with a focus on the assessment of clinical and toxicology samples.

He added that the site will conduct bioanalysis work for a variety of drug types “mostly small molecule, but not exclusively, some large molecules will also be handled​.”

Nordic capacity

Sweden is a base of operations for some of the largest drug manufacturers in the world. For example, Pfizer and AstraZeneca both have production operations in the country.

But there is a lack of good laboratory practice (GLP) standard bioanalysis labs in Sweden and across the Nordic region as a whole according to Lehmann, who cited the shortage alongside customer demand as a driver for the investment.

Some major pharma might, or might not, have capacity in-house, but looking at all the GLP certificates that are issued in Sweden, there are not that many​” he said, adding that “and the majority of those GLP labs do not perform bioanalysis.”

At present Recipharm contracts bioanalysis work to a third party laboratory. However, according to Lehmann “we will not continue working with that vendor now that we have the capacity in-house​.”

The firm plans to recruit several chemists in the coming months and aims to more than double its team of 35 in the next couple of years.

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