ST. LOUIS, Missouri, November 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SAFC, a member of the Sigma-Aldrich Group , announced today that its SAFC Pharma business segment is adding the solid-form research capabilities of Pharmorphix, a Cambridge, U.K.-based solid-form research services specialist, to the services offered at its flagship high-potency active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) facility in Madison, Wisconsin. The addition brings increased capability to customers by supporting regulatory and intellectual property submissions, and utilizes a portion of SAFC Madison’s recent $12 million facility expansion. The solid-form research technology is expected to be in place January 2007.
The new services follow SAFC’s mid-year acquisition of Pharmorphix, whose focus is to drive molecules into the clinic through understanding and modifying the physical properties of APIs to ensure patient benefit, rapid development and protection of intellectual property. Research and development support services include polymorph investigation, salt selection, physicochemical property determinations, pre-formulation profiling, co-crystallization, classical chiral resolution and crystallization studies. Operating under the SAFC Pharma brand, Pharmorphix’s primary operations will continue to be based in its state-of-the-art U.K. facilities.
Commenting on the expansion, Frank Wicks, SAFC President said, “The Pharmorphix addition to the SAFC global family underlines the importance of aligning our capabilities with ever-expanding regulatory and approval requirements. Placing these capabilities in Madison is a logical step for SAFC and is a continuation of our strategy to add value by meeting our customers’ needs for rapid response in this type of analysis.”
Craig Grant, Pharmorphix Project Director adds, “Solid-form research is critical in today’s advancing regulatory climate, and we will continue to increase our capabilities in the high- potency area. Adding these capabilities to SAFC Madison will provide U.S.-based customers with local access to rapid turn-around analysis such as XRPD from a cGMP facility.”
SAFC Pharma is focused on cGMP manufacturing, process development and contract services for small organic APIs and advanced intermediates, and the development of large molecule biopharmaceuticals. The business is one of four operating segments that combined provided $437 million in sales in 2005 and status as one of the world’s 10 largest fine chemicals businesses.
Other 2006 SAFC expansion activities include:
The purchase of the SAFC Arklow, Ireland facility; a large-scale API manufacturing site with 90,000 liters of total cGMP capacity in St. Louis; a $16 million expansion for cGMP protein purification and extraction capacity; and the opening of a new 139,000 sq.ft. medicinal chemistry facility in Bangalore, India. In addition, seven-day-per-week work shift extensions have been introduced at the company’s SAFC Gillingham, UK, API manufacturing site and its SAFC Manchester, UK, medicinal chemistry and development facilities.
About SAFC:
SAFC is the custom manufacturing group within Sigma-Aldrich that focuses on both biochemical production and the manufacturing of complex, multi-step organic synthesis of APIs and key intermediates. SAFC has manufacturing facilities around the world dedicated to providing manufacturing services for companies requiring a reliable partner to produce their custom manufactured materials. SAFC has four operating segments - SAFC Pharma, SAFC Supply Solutions, SAFC Biosciences, and SAFC Hitech - and had annual sales of $437million in 2005. SAFC is one of the world’s 10 largest fine chemical businesses.
About Sigma-Aldrich:
Sigma-Aldrich is a leading Life Science and High Technology company. Its biochemical and organic chemical products and kits are used in scientific and genomic research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development, the diagnosis of disease and as key components in pharmaceutical and other high technology manufacturing. The Company has customers in life science companies, university and government institutions, hospitals, and in industry. Over one million scientists and technologists use its products. Sigma-Aldrich operates in 35 countries and has 7,200 employees providing excellent service worldwide. Sigma-Aldrich is committed to Accelerating Customer Success through Leadership in Life Science, High Technology and Service. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit its award-winning Web site at http://sigma-aldrich.com.
Cautionary Statement:
This release contains forward-looking statements relating to future performance, goals, strategic actions and initiatives and similar intentions and beliefs and other statements regarding the Company’s expectations, goals, beliefs, intentions and the like, which involve assumptions regarding the Company’s operations and conditions in the markets the Company serves. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
SAFC
CONTACT: For further inquiries : For questions contact: Dr. Frank Wicks,President, SAFC, +1-314-286-8008; Media inquiries: Mr. Richard Kerns,Northern Exposure, +44-161-728-5880
