Molecular Profiles, a specialist contract research and manufacturing organisation based in Nottingham, UK, is putting £9 million into a new manufacturing facility that will beef up the company’s existing portfolio of drug development services.
Scheduled to open in late 2012, the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)-standard facility will give Molecular Profiles 30,000 sq ft of extra space, with six new GMP suites, new laboratories and a clinical packing suite.
With the capability to manufacture highly potent compounds up to OEB (occupational exposure band) 4 level and to handle a range of dosage forms including solids, liquids, semi-solids and inhaled products, the expanded resources will enable Molecular Profiles to provide comprehensive coverage of Phase I and II clinical trial requirements with a manufacturing batch scale of up to 30kg, the company said.
It will also complement Molecular Profiles’ existing GMP facility and research laboratories in Nottingham, bringing “increased productivity across the company’s complete portfolio of drug development services”, it noted.
The UK government has supported the initiative with a regional growth-fund grant of £1.6 million. Nikin Patel, chief executive officer of Molecular Profiles, said the construction of “significantly larger” manufacturing and laboratory facilities was “a strategic decision based on customer demand”.
The privately owned Molecular Profiles was founded in 1997 by an academic group from the University of Nottingham’s School of Pharmacy specialising in advanced characterisation of pharmaceutical and biological materials.
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