Strategic Investment in Small Molecule API Development Creates New Flow Chemistry Centre of Excellence at CordenPharma Chenôve

CordenPharma recently announced the completion of a Phase 1 strategic investment to create a Flow Chemistry Centre of Excellence at its CordenPharma Chenôve facility, near Dijon, France.

Because Flow Chemistry & Continuous Manufacturing play an increasingly significant role in today’s pharmaceutical development landscape, CordenPharma Chenôve has, over the past 5 years, engaged in projects on behalf of customers to address their specific process concerns by employing flow chemistry and continuous manufacturing. Considering these past successes, CordenPharma made the decision to invest in their Small Molecules platform by expanding CordenPharma Chenôve’s capabilities in this area by creating and staffing a Flow Chemistry Centre of Excellence.

Phase 1 of the investment program was recently completed with the renovation of an R&D laboratory using state-of-the art flow chemistry equipment and a newly hired focused team of experts. At the Head of the Flow Chemistry Centre of Excellence Development Lab is Dr. Clemens Horn, a veteran in flow chemistry who brings 14 years of experience as Senior Research Scientist at Corning S.A.S., where he became an expert in developing industrial flow chemistry processes. The specific role of his group will be to provide fast, initial proof of concept studies to confirm the possible positive impact of Flow Chemistry on specific processes, and then follow up with more detailed development phases optimizing the process, and ultimately establishing appropriate PAT for control purposes.

Phase 2 of the investment has also been initiated, which includes the design and construction of a dedicated GMP flow chemistry pilot facility at CordenPharma Chenôve. This space features the flexible advantage of a modular design concept, with completion anticipated towards the end of 2021. The pilot facility consists of flexible equipment that will enable the facility to manufacture multiple 100 kg quantities, depending on reaction parameters and throughput.

“Flow Chemistry and Continuous Manufacturing continue to play a growing, important role in drug development & manufacturing in the Small Molecule manufacturing arena. Although CordenPharma Chenôve has already been providing our customers limited access to this exciting service, the creation of the Flow Chemistry Development Centre of Excellence, along with investment into technology and a new team, represents an exciting expansion of opportunities not only for CordenPharma Chenôve, but our entire network of full-service capabilities,” said Dr. Stephen Houldsworth, VP of Global Platform Management & Marketing.

Further investments in this area are being considered for the future to expand scale-up resources that will enable the execution of the processes at increasing scales, while designing custom manufacturing skids and processes.

With approximately 200 employees, CordenPharma Chenôve has grown a strong focus in the development & manufacturing of APIs from laboratory-scale to commercialization at ton-scale.  The entire team of R&D, Manufacturing, QA/QC and Project Management have demonstrated significant expertise in the development of clinical assets, along with the production and supply of commercial products for our customers.

CordenPharma, the global pharmaceutical service & manufacturing platform of International Chemical Investors Group (ICIG), is a full-service partner in the Contract Development & Manufacturing (CDMO) of APIs, Excipients, Drug Products, and associated Packaging Services. Through a growing network of cGMP facilities across Europe and the US organized under five Technology Platforms – Peptides – Lipids & Carbohydrates – Injectables – Highly Potent & Oncology – Small Molecules – CordenPharma experts translate complex processes and projects at any stage of development into high-value products. For more information, visit cordenpharma.com.