Renaissance Lakewood LLC, a pharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), has officially opened its new, 67,000 sq ft, expansive warehouse at its recently opened headquarters at 1215 Paco Way in Lakewood, NJ. 
 
The structure, at 81,000 sq ft, increases Renaissance’s GMP warehouse square footage and serves as the primary client engagement and administrative hub for the company. The office space portion of the building opened earlier this spring.
 
“The completion of our new warehouse operation marks the culmination of many years of planning for and investing in our facilities,” Serge Maltais, President & CEO of Renaissance, said. “This significant increase in capacity together with our implementation of smart, efficiency-focused technology, enables us to provide our customers with a comprehensive, customized experience.”
 
The multi-million-dollar expansion and facilities upgrade in Ocean County, NJ, began in 2020 and consists of two new buildings (1215 & 1220 Paco Way, Lakewood, NJ) as well as the renovation of Renaissance’s 177,000 sq ft manufacturing building at 1200 Paco Way. Investment in cutting-edge technology and equipment is also part of the modernized manufacturing structure.

Manufacturing Upgrades

As part of their manufacturing upgrades, Renaissance completed the installation and qualification of a new high-speed nasal spray assembly line capable of assembling and packaging unit-dose and bi-dose nasal spray devices with increased speed.
 
In addition to this new line, Renaissance continues to operate multiple filling, assembly, and packing lines that offer customers redundancy as well as the ability to scale products from pre-clinical through commercial scale manufacturing.
 
At 1220 Paco Way, the new 31,000 sq ft structure houses a state-of-the-art, Quality Control Spray/Particulate Laboratory as well as both the Analytical and Formulation Research and Development Laboratories.
 
Renaissance increased the Quality Control (QC) Spray laboratory by nearly three times its former size.  In addition, a separate controlled non-classified area was constructed with its own gowning room to aid in a cleaner environment to test particulate samples for release.
 
The now fully operational laboratory complex also includes upgrades to existing equipment and complete replacements of older equipment to facilitate sensitive sterility tests for products manufactured aseptically at the site.
 
In addition to the QC lab space, Renaissance moved the Analytical Research & Development (AR&D) area to share GMP analytical equipment for most, if not all, AR&D tests. Lastly, Formulation Research & Development moved to this area in a separate non-GMP area of the building.  Previously, this lab was combined with AR&D.
 
At 1215 Paco Way, the Warehouse team members have all received hours of hands-on training to operate the technologically advanced machinery now deployed in the new space.
 
The temperature-controlled, 32 ft clear facility will serve as the primary warehouse location for the company which also has supply chain operations at 1200 Paco Way.

Safety and Efficiency Improvements

Safety and efficiency improvements in the facility are enhanced by the machinery used to move materials throughout the expansive space. The turret-type forklifts feature wire guidance and floor positioning tags to help control speed and movement within the space. These specialized forklifts feature a warehouse positioning system that will lead the equipment to the required picking location with the touch of a screen.
 
In addition, a pallet shuttle system facilitates high density storage allowing efficient usage of the warehouse cubic footprint. The warehouse mobility scanning system features QR coded rack labels which enable staff to quickly pinpoint material locations and track inventory with a 75 percent reduction in manual data entry.
 
“We have spent nearly half a decade upgrading our facilities and capabilities in order to meet the world-wide demand for our broad range of services,” Maltais added. “Every single upgrade and investment have been made with one purpose in mind, to ensure a first-class experience for our customers and provide a safe and compliant operating environment so that patients can receive life-saving and life-changing medications.”