By Ben Adams
Onyx Scientific is set to increase the size of its U.K.-based site by more than 30% as it enjoys the spoils of a lucrative 2015.
The CRO and small-scale API manufacturer--which is owned by India's Ipca Laboratories--is investing in a new site located next to its existing facility in Northeast England. Onyx said this is to "help its clients accelerate candidates from discovery to production" and follows what the company said is its best performance since being founded 16 years ago.
Its additional space will primarily be used to increase its laboratory facilities and GMP suites, and Onyx will allocate space for storage of GMP materials, the firm said in a statement.
As part of the expansion, Onyx Scientific has also recruited several more chemists to support its clients' preclinical, development and early-stage API manufacturing projects.
This comes nearly a year after the CRO announced plans to expand its API manufacturing services with the addition of a Class 100,000 suite at its original facility.
Denise Bowser, commercial director at Onyx Scientific, said: "Although we have come to the end of a very positive year, we have never been a firm to rest of our laurels. With the support of our parent company Ipca Laboratories, we are very much investing in our physical capacity, equipment and technical resource."
This latest venture follows investment last year to grow its GMP space following an increase in demand for its small-scale API manufacturing services.
Bowser added: "The decision to expand into an additional building has been driven by increased demand for GMP services as well as continuous flow projects and solid-state chemistry, which has fully utilized our resources over the past 12 months."
In addition to its work with pharma, Onyx Scientific also has deals with a number of specialty drug development firms and biotechs in early-stage testing.
Established in 2000, Onyx Scientific works on the production of API in up to 50-L to 100-L equipment, as well as providing earlier stage custom synthesis, lead optimization and analytical services. It was acquired by Ipca in 2011.
This news will be a boost for its parent firm after a tough week--it currently has three plants on the FDA's import alert list and just this week received a warning letter for the facilities from the regulator. Reports suggest that the FDA is concerned with employees falsifying drug testing results and deleting failed tests.
- read the statement