Since flow chemistry and continuous manufacturing play an increasingly significant role in today’s pharmaceutical development landscape, CordenPharma said, it made the decision to invest in its small molecules platform by expanding the Chenôve site’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 team of experts. Clemens Horn will lead the Flow Chemistry Centre of Excellence Development Lab. Horn brings 14 years of experience at Corning, where he became an expert in developing industrial flow chemistry processes. The specific role of his group, CordenPharma commented, 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 Chenôve. This space, the company said, 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 Stephen Houldsworth, CordenPharma’s VP of Global Platform Management & Marketing.

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