Sterling Pharma Solutions, a CDMO,  is investing £6m into its pilot plant facility at its UK site to enhance its scale-up and small to midscale commercial API manufacturing capabilities.

The expansion will increase the pilot plant’s capacity by 33% and enhance the site’s production capabilities and flexibility for small to mid-scale batch production. Three new reactor trains will be added at scales of 225L, 500L and 1,360L to the cGMP facility. This will help to meet growing market demand for API batch sizes in the 10-100kg range. 

As part of the investment the 40-acre site in Dudley, North East England, will also add a range of new capabilities to expand the ability to handle potent compounds across a range of equipment scales.

Kevin Cook, chief executive officer at Sterling Pharma Solutions, said, “This latest investment has been driven by demand for a full-service API development and manufacturing offering. More and more of our customers are interested in outsourcing the entire process and by adding more small-scale equipment to our facility we’ll be able to increase our capacity and cater for additional projects from proof of concept through to commercial manufacture.”

The expansion follows an investment in 2017 into the site’s milling, micronization and solid form facility. Both investments form part of a strategic development plan totaling almost £12m.