Cambrex Corporation, a US manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) has announced another expansion to boost its global network. This latest project will see an investment of $24 million in a new facility to manufacture highly potent APIs (HPAPIs) at Charles City, Iowa, USA.

The 4,500ft² production area will operate to an occupational exposure limit (OEL) down to 0.1μg/m³ and have a total reactor capacity of 2,200 gallons, which will consist of a range of 200, 500 and 1,000 gallon glass and Hastelloy vessels to manufacture batches from 50kg to 300kg.

The project will also reconfigure the existing small-scale manufacturing area and provide a single, high containment building to support early stage development and manufacturing, with flexibility across a broad range of scale, Cambrex said. Completion is expected by the first quarter of 2019.

Shawn Cavanagh, chief operating officer at Cambrex, said the expansion was in line with the group’s commitment to ongoing investment in small molecule manufacturing as well as a response to the rising number of potent and toxic APIs that require specialized handling.

The company opened a $50 million multi-purpose manufacturing facility at Charles City in 2016. The facility, which makes a wide range of APIs and pharmaceutical intermediates, including highly potent molecules and controlled substances, is one of a limited number of plants that are authorized by the US Drug Enforcement Administration to import narcotic raw materials at commercial scale.

In May, Cambrex announced two expansion projects, one at its cGMP plant in Karlskoga, Sweden, and the other in High Point, North Carolina, USA, where it is spending $2.4 million to add a fourth reactor suite.

The installation of new multi-purpose reactors at Karlskoga is due to be completed by Q3 2017. The US expansion should be fully operational by early 2018.