PCI Pharma, a Philadelphia-based CDMO, will spend $100 million to beef up aseptic liquid fill-finish manufacturing operations at its Bedford, New Hampshire, facility.
The project follows PCI’s purchase in December of Lyophilization Services of New England for an undisclosed price. The expansion will include a 50,000-square-foot building that will house an aseptic fill-finish line with a fully isolated containment system in addition to twin lyophilizers with the capacity to complete 400 vials per minute, the company said.
PCI, which said it also will expand three additional Bedford facilities with more aseptic fill-finish and lyophilization capabilities, aims to use the Bedford campus as a centralized hub in the Northeast.
“Our investment in these facilities will ensure that PCI continues to leverage new capabilities in complex formulations, aseptic fill-finish and lyophilization to meet the needs of our global clients, particularly as biologics continue their strong growth trajectory,” Salim Haffar, PCI’s chief executive, said in a statement.
The CDMO has been on an expansion tear lately, having made manufacturing upgrades at global sites located in Berlin, Melbourne, Australia, San Diego and Rockford, Illinois. The latest production upgrades came in February at the San Diego and Melbourne plants. PCI also has facilities in the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Spain, Canada, Wisconsin and Ohio.
It was just about two years ago when the United Arab Emirates sovereign fund Mubadala and private equity firm Kohlberg & Company took big stakes in PCI with the aim of expanding the company’s presence in Europe and Asia by growing its CDMO offerings to include services like fill-finish of injectable drugs.