Axplora, a partner to pharma companies and biotechs for complex APIs, has announced the cGMP approval from AIFA (the national public body regulating medicines for human use in Italy) for the first line of its new Farmabios’ production unit, expanding large scale manufacturing capabilities for HPAPIs and Steroids.
This is a key milestone for Farmabios, reinforcing its manufacturing services with a high containment system up to OEB 5 (Occupation Exposure Band), a cryogenic capacity up to -100°C and a fully automatised system with DCS (Distributed Control System).
The versatile and modular facility is a vertical-designed building, composed of 4 floors with a 2,800 sqm total area, including space for future cGMP capacity expansion.
This is a significant and concrete answer for our pharmaceutical customers, who face growing challenges to find reliable, available capacities to manufacture HPAPIs and steroids
- Paolo Perracino, Gropello Cairoli Site Director
The new multipurpose workshop is designed to produce HPAPI and steroid batches up to 300 kg thanks to a wide range of cutting-edge equipment including several reactors with a wide range capacity from 1,000 to 12,000 litres, vertically connected to filter driers, horizontal centrifuges, biconic dryer and ancillary tanks for temporary process storage.
Fully-equipped isolators are also in place for loading and discharging starting materials, intermediates and final products.
“This major project to expand the Gropello Cairoli site demonstrates Axplora’s dynamism in our industrial investment strategy that we have been successfully deploying for several years," said Paolo Perracino, Gropello Cairoli Site Director. “This is a significant and concrete answer for our pharmaceutical customers, who face growing challenges to find reliable, available capacities to manufacture HPAPIs and steroids.”
“Complex chemistry is our core competence at Gropello Cairoli site, enabling us to meet our customers’ needs with the manufacturing of HPAPIs and Steroids," explained Gianpietro Roncoletta, Project Engineer. “This new cGMP production unit strengthens our offering and supports our position as a reliable and agile partner in the drug products value chain."
"We are so proud of this achievement, resulting from years of working together closely in the project team," added Roncoletta. "My warm thanks to each person involved in this exciting journey. We started in 2019 with the construction of the building and while being slowed down by the COVID pandemic, we did not give up. This is evidence of our resilience on this site.”
Newly cGMP certified in June, this new production line aims to get additional approvals by the end the year to be fully operational and will welcome new customer projects. It is already producing first batches which will be delivered according to the initial plan agreed with customers to serve patients worldwide.