WuXi STA and Multiply Labs Announce Partnership and Successfully Deploy Robotic Manufacturing System for Personalized Drugs

SHANGHAI--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- WuXi STA, a subsidiary of WuXi AppTec and a leading global Contract Research, Development and Manufacturing Organization (CRDMO), today announced the partnership with Multiply Labs (based in San Francisco, CA, USA), a robotics company that has developed industry-leading automated manufacturing systems to produce individualized drugs.

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The Robotic Cluster in Wuxi City, China (Photo: Business Wire)

The focus of the partnership is to enable the manufacturing of personalized drugs for patients. Within this collaboration, Multiply Labs has deployed a novel robotic system in WuXi STA’s facilities that efficiently produces advanced solid oral dosage forms, including capsules containing personalized dosage strengths of a single API (e.g., for modified release) and capsules containing personalized combinations of multiple APIs and their formulations. This robotic technology targets a broad range of GMP manufacturing applications, including the production of personalized drug products for specific patient groups (e.g., pediatric/geriatric populations and rare disease patients) and the combination of multiple drugs in one single capsule (e.g., for personalized combination therapies).

Personalized dosing applications – from clinical to commercial manufacturing – have traditionally been very challenging and labor-intensive. Truly personalized manufacturing is limited by the inflexibility of traditional manufacturing technologies, which are only able to generate one large batch each time. The WuXi STA - Multiply Labs partnership addresses these challenges through the unique combination of robotic technology and drug product manufacturing expertise.

As part of the partnership, Multiply Labs has completed the deployment of a robotic system in WuXi STA’s drug product manufacturing site in Wuxi city, China. The manufacturing applications of the robotic system focuses on the development and GMP manufacturing of capsules with personalized doses.

This technology can manufacture virtually any type of capsules, and even capsule configurations that are difficult with traditional technologies. The robots have been designed to handle personalized deposition for most common formulations, including powders, powder blends, granules, beads, and minitabs. The system can be preprogrammed to manufacture personalized product batches - for example, different dosage strengths for different patients, different release profiles for better therapeutic effects, dosage form flexibility such as minitabs vs granule, etc., giving customers the enhanced flexibility. In addition to traditional capsules, this robotic system can also manufacture multi-compartment capsules, which are ideal for drug combinations where two or more APIs or formulations need to be compartmentalized.

“WuXi STA is a globally recognized leader in the formulation development and manufacturing, and Multiply Labs is excited to partner with them in bringing our pioneering robotic technology to the market,” said Fred Parietti, Ph.D., Co-founder, and CEO of Multiply Labs. “Our joint teams have collaborated at an unprecedented speed to develop and deploy this unique technology. Our goal is to enable precision medicine to scale and reach all the patients who need it, and this breakthrough partnership is an exciting step forward towards that vision.”

“We believe that automation is the future of pharmaceutical manufacturing,” said Jinling Chen, Ph.D., SVP and Head of Pharmaceutical Development and Manufacturing Services at WuXi STA. “By bringing together Multiply Labs’ novel robotic technology and WuXi STA’s industry-leading drug product development and manufacturing expertise, we can better support customers to accelerate their drug product development by enabling more personalized dosing for clinical studies.”

About WuXi STA:

WuXi STA (stapharma.com), a subsidiary of WuXi AppTec (wuxiapptec.com), is a leading pharmaceutical development and manufacturing capability and technology platform company serving the life sciences industry, with global operations. As a premier Contract Research, Development, and Manufacturing Organization (CRDMO), WuXi STA offers its worldwide partners efficient, flexible and high-quality solutions for integrated chemical, manufacturing and controls (CMC) from preclinical to commercial uses, including the development and manufacturing of small molecule, oligonucleotide, peptide and various complex chemical conjugate. For more information, please visit: http://www.STApharma.com

About Multiply Labs:

Multiply Labs is a robotics technology company that provides autonomous manufacturing services to the pharmaceutical industry. The company develops advanced, cloud-controlled robotic systems that enable the production of individualized drugs at scale. Its customers include some of the largest global organizations in the advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing space. Multiply Labs’ expertise is at the intersection of robotics and biopharma – its team includes mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, computer scientists, software engineers and pharmaceutical scientists. Combining robotics with pharmaceutical technology has always been at the core of Multiply Labs, and it was this shared passion that brought together its founding team at MIT. The company is based in San Francisco, California. For more information, please visit www.multiplylabs.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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