Clariant Pharmaceuticals makes it debut

Clariant has created a new business unit within its fine chemicals group that will provide r&d-based pharmaceutical companies with services and infrastructure to allow them to maximise their resources in the pursuit of drug commercialisation.

Called Clariant Pharmaceuticals, the business unit will be based in Sulzbach, Germany, and will offer APIs, early and late stage intermediates, building blocks and leading proprietary technologies. It was formed in a recent restructuring of the Clariant Life Sciences and Electronic Chemicals division, which represents the fine chemicals business in the overall Clariant organisation.

David Maddox, head of Clariant Pharmaceuticals, said: 'At the core of the business is a strong expertise in chemical manufacturing technology. We surround this expertise with a wide range of disciplines, such as small-scale production, process development, technology development and regulatory support, all of which help us to tailor our production to our customers.'

The formation of the business unit brings together all Clariant's pharmaceutical capabilities. For the drug development phase, it operates the Lancaster catalogue business, which supplies subgram to multi-kilo quantities of materials for research purposes.

For the process development and trials phases, Clariant Molecules Synthesis Centre focuses on supplying kilo to 250kg quantities of cGMP materials to customers, and to support commercial launch, Clariant Pharmaceuticals operates cGMP centres of excellence in Origgio/Isso in Italy, and Springfield/Puerto Rico, US. This capability complements facilities in France and the UK that offer cGMP API production.

Maddox commented: 'Many of our personnel are drawn from the pharmaceutical industry, with decades of experience in the disciplines required to manufacture FDA-regulated products. It is the combination of key personnel from the fine chemicals and the pharmaceutical industry that makes Clariant Pharmaceuticals distinctive.'