Cambrex’s Snapdragon Chemistry subsidiary has developed a new liquid-phase peptide synthesis (LPPS) technology that uses traditional API batch reactors and continuous flow, obviating the dependency on specialised, solid-phase reactors. It also “materially reduces solvent demand and the need for excess reagents compared to standard solid-state peptide synthesis (SPPS) processes”.
CDMO Cambrex has sold its Drug Product business unit to Noramco. Terms were not disclosed. The business comprises product development, clinical and commercial manufacturing and packaging from facilities in Mirabel, Québec, and Whippany, New Jersey.
CEO Thomas Loewald described this as “the result of a strategic decision to focus on core areas of growth and investment”. The company will henceforth prioritise its drug substance and analytical testing businesses, which are based across 13 sites worldwide, including the recently acquired Snapdragon Chemistry and Q1 Scientific.
Cambrex has completed a $38 million expansion at its small molecule API facility in High Point, North Carolina. This doubles capacity, with new analytical and chemical development laboratories, two new clinical manufacturing suites and a small-scale commercial manufacturing operation with three work centres and 2,000 litre reactors. Work originally began in 2021. This has created about 70 jobs.
CDMO Cambrex has agreed to buy Snapdragon Chemistry, a US-based provider of chemical process development services to the biopharma sector. Terms were not disclosed. This came two months after regulatory approval was denied to Asymchem Laboratories’ acquisition of Snapdragon.
Cambrex has announced it is investing in a new facility in Minneapolis. It will operate as an extension of the flagship facility in Charles City, Iowa (pictured), which is simultaneously seeing further expansion.
The new site, near Minneapolis–St. Paul Airport, will specialise in analytical and chemical development for small molecule drug candidates and will cover 1,950 m2 R&D. This will double Cambrex’s analytical and chemical development footprint in the Midwest, according to CEO Thomas Loewald, while creating 46 jobs.
Cambrex has completed the upgrade of the kilo lab at its facility in Tallinn, Estonia, manufacture pharmaceutical intermediates to cGMP standards. The company said that this would “accelerate the progression and tech transfer of projects within the early clinical development phases”.
Small molecule CDMO Cambrex is spending $50 million to expand its mid- and large-scale API manufacturing capacity in Charles City, Iowa. This is the sixth major investment at the site in the past eight years and follows on from a recent, smaller expansion at the site in Karlskroga, Sweden.
