LyraChem looks north for expansion
LyraChem, a chemical consultancy that specialises in improving pharmaceutical process development, has relocated to new laboratory and office facilities in Newcastle upon Tyne as part of its expansion plans.
LyraChem, a chemical consultancy that specialises in improving pharmaceutical process development, has relocated to new laboratory and office facilities in Newcastle upon Tyne as part of its expansion plans.
The Durham University spin-out company now brings together the academic excellence of Durham and Newcastle Universities to deliver a range of products and services to pharmaceutical companies and their manufacturing partners, helping them to speed up chemical process development and achieve better manufacturing processes.
LyraChem combines expertise in chemistry, chemical engineering and mathematics from within the two universities to improve the transfer of technology from laboratory to large-scale production. The core principle behind its business concept is to understand the more mathematical aspects of process chemistry in parallel with the development of the chemistry. This allows advanced engineering technologies to be applied much earlier in the development lifecycle, enabling lab processes to be scaled up quickly, safely and with substantial cost-savings.
The company, led by co-founder and ceo Dr Carl Thirsk, has secured investment from the Three Pillars Fund to assist its growth plans.
"We aim to bridge the traditional disconnect between chemistry and chemical engineering," said Thirsk. "We identified a gap in the market and with the unique skills, expertise and technology LyraChem can offer here in the North East, there's a real opportunity to achieve commercial success.
"We apply a combination of technologies in parallel to understand better the relationships between small-scale chemical behaviour and large-scale process operations. Our package of advanced chemical engineering, quality chemistry and mathematical technologies crucially helps to develop the broad and deep scientific knowledge base needed to understand and control process variability."
Since it began trading with just three people in 2006, the team has now expanded to 10 to cope with new business and increase commercial opportunities.