IA: Cambrex to Invest $40M to $50M to Expand Large-Scale API Mfg Capacity

Cambrex Corporation is pleased to announce that it has initiated the second significant expansion of its Charles City, Iowa facility in less than three years. Strong continued growth in demand for the Company’s active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) contract manufacturing capabilities is driving the need for more capacity. The Company expects to invest between $45 and $50 million during 2015, including a state-of-the-art cGMP production facility and related supporting infrastructure. This project is expected to be completed in early 2016 and is designed to allow Cambrex to quickly and efficiently further expand cGMP capacity, as future growth requires.

The new manufacturing facility will initially add a total of 70 cubic meters of glass lined and hastelloy reactors ranging in size from 7m³ to 16m³ along with 6m² hastelloy filter dryers to provide a flexible, multi-purpose configuration. The facility will be designed to the highest regulatory and safety standards, capable of handling potent APIs at an OEL down to 1µg/m³ and will significantly increase the company’s cGMP manufacturing capabilities. The facility is also expandable with the ability to add additional capacity on a short timeline. The capacity is being added along with 45,000 square feet of new fully cGMP, temperature and humidity controlled warehouse space.

Joe Nettleton, VP of operations of Cambrex Charles City said, “We are pleased to be expanding again so quickly in this competitive global pharmaceutical landscape. The need for increased API capacity comes on the back of strong market demand and high capacity utilization of our current large scale assets. There is high demand for US-based suppliers with large scale cGMP contract manufacturing capacity and world-class quality systems, and we have demonstrated that we are quite capable of meeting that demand.”

Shawn Cavanagh, chief operating officer of Cambrex agreed, “In recent years, we have seen significantly stronger demand for the assets and capabilities that our Charles City facility has. We believe this expansion, combined with a very talented and experienced team, provides an ongoing foundation for our customers’ small molecule product manufacturing needs and supports our goal of bringing our customers’ products to market quickly.”