As part of the investment, Olon is installing a new mill for grinding finished APIs, which the company said will lift productivity and ensure high particle size standards. “We expect a significant increase in the potential capacity of the site,” said head of global operations Marcello Buson.

In February this year, Olon announced that it had completed a project at its facility in Rodano, Milan, that expanded pilot plant capacity for scaling up highly active APIs. The company has other pilot plants for developing high-potency APIs with which the Rodano plant will be integrated for increased capacity and improved flexibility.

Olon said the investment at Rodano is part of its strategy to implement a highly integrated operating model between both R&D and manufacturing operations, as well as the integration of specific, highly specialized processes consolidated within research and development centers located at sites around the world.

The integration will also be applied to product scale-up projects, which Olon said require the transition from pilot scale to large- and very large-scale production plants that have similar equipment so as to ensure the same level of containment, even for large batch sizes.

Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist