NextPharma Technologies Announces €2.4 Million Investment to Upgrade its Sterile Vial Area at its Belgian Facility, near Brussels.  

Surrey, UK, 8th March 2010

Surrey, UK, 8th March, 2010 - NextPharma, the leading European provider of product development, contract manufacturing and cold chain and logistics outsourcing services to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, is pleased to announce that it has invested €2.4 million towards the upgrade of its Sterile Vial Area (SVA) in Braine-l’Alleud, near Brussels in Belgium.

The newly established SVA for both solution and lyophilized vials, which is estimated to be operational by the end of 2010, will complement existing sterile capabilities at the Braine-l’Alleud facility covering ampoules, eye drops and cytostatics in vials (both solution and lyophilized forms). This additional capability will provide customers with an integrated solution for their non cytotoxic products from development in the Braine l’Alleud Sterile Product Development Center (SPDC) or at NextPharma’s San Diego, US based development center to commercial production scale up at NextPharma’s Braine-l’Alleud manufacturing facilities.

Dr Hermann Osterwald, Managing Director, NextPharma Technologies, Contract Manufacturing Services commented: “The completion of the SVA became a priority for our Braine facility following the successful completion of the SPDC and considerable interest from our customers. NextPharma’s strategy for our Braine-l’Alleud facility has been to develop it as a centre of excellence for sterile development and manufacturing, (both cytostatic and non-cytostatic, including biologics). The recent completion of the SPDC, our rapidly growing development center in San Diego and now the SVA represent a key element of this strategy”.

NextPharma’s facility at Braine l'Alleud, Belgium has extensive know how in cytotoxics, lyophilization and solutions – gained over nearly twenty years in formulation development, manufacturing, packaging and control of cytotoxic products.  NextPharma has initiated a programme for the implementation of FDA status, including extensive expansion and upgrading of its cytotoxics production capacity and capabilities. Additionally, it has a keen focus on the development of new delivery dosage forms.

NextPharma develops, manufactures, packages, and distributes a broad range of products and formulations for its customers including solids, liquids and semi-solid dosage forms, antibiotics, hormones and controlled release medicines. It has an established leadership position in the high technology area of injectables manufacturing (lyophilized and liquid fill), with particular expertise in product development and manufacture of oncology medicines.