ST. LOUIS, April 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SAFC, a member of the Sigma-Aldrich Group , has announced the construction completion of two major new protein API facilities at its St. Louis, Missouri manufacturing campus.
A new Biologics manufacturing facility consists of a 25,000 sq. ft. cGMP purification and manufacturing suite for transgenic plant and other non-animal derived protein APIs and a 6,000 sq. ft. facility for purification of animal-derived protein APIs. Validation for commercial operation of this $16 million expansion at the 400,000 sq. ft. St Louis manufacturing campus is expected by mid-year 2007.
"This expansion for SAFC Pharma further reflects our recognized market leadership in cGMP purification of therapeutic proteins from natural sourced material," said SAFC President Frank Wicks. "The expanded capacity responds to the increased demand for large-scale supply and will meet late-stage clinical trial and commercial manufacturing needs for both transgenic and naturally-sourced APIs."
The Biologics facility features some of the largest extraction and purification suites of their kind in the industry. The Class 100,000 (ISO 8) and Class 10,000 (ISO 7) clean rooms will accommodate multiple one-meter chromatography columns and ultrafiltration operations, with API target quantities in the five-kilogram range. Also featured is a Class 10,000 (ISO 7) lyophilization suite.
Completely separated to prevent potential cross-contamination, the facility for animal-derived API purification also features Class 100,000 (ISO 8) and Class 10,000 (ISO 7) clean rooms. These will also include multiple one-meter chromatography columns and ultrafiltration operations to give API quantities in the five-kilogram range.
Both facilities are supported by SAFC Pharma's extensive process development, quality control and quality assurance capabilities and teams in St. Louis.
About SAFC: SAFC is the custom manufacturing group within Sigma-Aldrich that focuses on both 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 operating segments -- SAFC Pharma, SAFC Supply Solutions, SAFC Biosciences, and SAFC Hitech -- and had annual sales of $500 million in 2006. SAFC is one of the world's 10 largest fine chemical businesses.
About Sigma-Aldrich: Sigma-Aldrich is a leading Life Science and High Technology company. Our 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. We have customers in life science companies, university and government institutions, hospitals, and in industry. Over one million scientists and technologists use our products. Sigma-Aldrich operates in 36 countries and has 7,500 employees providing excellent service worldwide. Sigma-Aldrich is committed to Accelerating Customer Success through Leadership in Life Science, High Technology and Service. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit our award-winning Web site at http://sigma-aldrich.com/.
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