SAFC Pharma to Increase Viral Product Manufacturing Capacity
January 15, 2008
$12 Million Expansion for Carlsbad, California Production Site
St. Louis, MO - January 14, 2008 - SAFC®, a member of the Sigma-Aldrich™ Group (NASDAQ: SIAL), has announced its plans for a $12 million expansion at its niche biologics production facility in Carlsbad, California. Two new fully segregated state-of-the-art viral product manufacturing suites will be built to employ the latest in disposable bioreactor technologies and enable SAFC Pharma’s™ viral manufacturing to increase to commercial-scale quantities.
Due to become operational in the second half of 2009, the new suites will add 8,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing space and enable 100 L batch production in stirred tank bioreactors and 1,000 L batch manufacturing in disposable bioreactors. The expansion will add to the current 44,000 sq. ft. site and be Biosafety Level 2 compliant, allowing manipulation of human pathogens.
SAFC Pharma Vice President of Manufacturing and U.S. Operations David Feldker commented, "The 2007 acquisition of Molecular Medicine Bioservices significantly enhanced SAFC Pharma’s Biologics offer in viral product manufacturing, including novel vaccines and gene therapies. This expansion will increase our Carlsbad site capabilities from clinical-scale to commercial-scale manufacturing, further demonstrating SAFC’s continued commitment to support its customers in the development and manufacturing of complex chemistries and niche biologics."
SAFC Pharma is a trusted leader for development and manufacturing of complex small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and biologic drug products for the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries. This latest facility expansion follows a series of 2007 investments for SAFC Pharma, which includes a $10 million expansion of commercial-scale APIs manufacturing and storage capacity, respectively, at Arklow, Ireland and Buchs, Switzerland, and a $29 million potent-fermentation expansion in Jerusalem, Israel. Other investments include a $4.5 million cGMP pilot plant and kilo lab capacity expansion at the Company’s flagship highpotency facility in Madison, Wisconsin and a new high-potency API conjugation suite located at the St. Louis manufacturing campus, both scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2008.
About SAFC: SAFC® is the custom manufacturing and services group within Sigma-Aldrich that focuses on high-purity inorganics for high technology applications, cell culture products and services for biopharmaceutical manufacturing, biochemical production and the manufacturing of complex, multi-step organic synthesis of APIs and key intermediates. SAFC has manufacturing facilities around the world dedicated to providing manufacturing services for companies requiring a reliable partner to produce their custom manufactured materials. SAFC has four focus areas – SAFC Pharma™, SAFC Supply Solutions®, SAFC Biosciences™, and SAFC Hitech™ – and had annual sales of nearly $500 million in 2006. SAFC is one of the world’s 10 largest fine chemical businesses. For more information about SAFC, visit www.safcglobal.com
About Sigma-Aldrich: Sigma-Aldrich Sigma-Aldrich is a leading Life Science and High Technology company. Its biochemical and organic chemical products and kits are used in scientific and genomic research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development, the diagnosis of disease and as key components in pharmaceutical and other high technology manufacturing. The Company has customers in life science companies, university and government institutions, hospitals, and in industry. Over one million scientists and technologists use its products. Sigma-Aldrich operates in 36 countries and has 7,800 employees providing excellent service worldwide. Sigma-Aldrich is committed to Accelerating Customer Success through Leadership in Life Science, High Technolog and Service. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit its award-winning Web site at http://www.sigma-aldrich.com.
Cautionary Statement: This release contains forward-looking statements relating to future performance, goals, strategic actions and initiatives and similar intentions and beliefs and other statements regarding the Company’s expectations, goals, beliefs, intentions and the like, which involve assumptions regarding the Company’s operations and conditions in the markets the Company serves. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
SAFC® and SAFC Supply Solutions® are registered trademarks of Sigma-Aldrich Biotechnology L.P.
Sigma-Aldrichâ„¢, SAFC Pharmaâ„¢, SAFC Biosciencesâ„¢ and SAFC Hitechâ„¢ are trademarks of Sigma-Aldrich Biotechnology L.P.