The inauguration follows the signature of a multi-year large scale peptide manufacturing agreement earlier this year.

Since the approval of investments in early 2023, CordenPharma said that it completed a series of upgrades and modernizations to the facility which have increased the efficiency and throughput of SPPS peptide production, allowing for increased capacity to service current and future customers across a growing pharmaceutical innovator base.

The implemented measures included upgrades to the existing 10,000 l reactor volume with a batch size exceeding 400 kg and a yearly capacity of more than 2 metric tons of peptide; a 50% increase in downstream HPLC purification capacity; automation upgrades; the implementation of PAT for amino acid identification and ready-to-use process intensification with continuous washing and reaction monitoring; and the modernization of critical infrastructure for increased efficiency of solvent delivery (> 150’000 L) and effluent removal.

The company expects to increase the existing workforce of currently 500 employees by a further 60.

“This expansion marks another milestone for CordenPharma, cementing our position as the leading large-scale peptide CDMO partner to the pharmaceutical and biotech industry,” commented CordenPharma’s CEO Michael Quirmbach.

Stéphane Varray, CordenPharma’s global peptide platform director, added: “CordenPharma is pleased to celebrate the start of peptide production in our newly upgraded and expanded SPPS manufacturing facility in Colorado with the largest worldwide peptide capacity available. These modernizations will allow for increased efficiency, throughput, and access to state-of-the-art technologies for streamlined commercial peptide API supply.”