Rhodia to Invest in Contract Manufacturing

27 March 2000 00:00  [Source: ICB Americas]

Rhodia plans to invest E30 million ($30 million) this year in facilities for pharmaceutical contract manufacturing to help it meet its target of a four-fold increase in custom synthesis sales, to E120 million, by 2004.

The investments will enable Rhodia to offer pharmaceutical companies a production capability stretching from pre-clinical samples to the commercial-scale manufacture of ingredients for the launch of new drugs.

Two of the company's projects involve an expansion and modernization of units at Holmes Chapel and Dagenham in England. The plants were formerly owned by RhÖne-Poulenc Rorer, the pharmaceuticals arm of RhÖne-Poulenc, Rhodia's former parent and now part of Aventis.

Until Rhodia acquired the two facilities around a year ago, it had no current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) plants for custom synthesis.

At Holmes Chapel, the company is building a second multistep plant that will feature new technologies such as chiral chemistry. The expansion is scheduled to come on by early next year.

At Dagenham, Rhodia is also extending multistage production so that after the second quarter of this year, it will be able to produce ingredients for a new anti-cholesterol drug as well as active ingredients for the veterinary market.

The company is building a cGMP pilot plant at its R&D center in Lyon, France. That facility will supply pharmaceutical manufacturers with small amounts of ingredients for pre-clinical trials. At the same time, Rhodia is raising its R&D expenditure by 30 percent to reinforce its expertise in technologies such as chiral chemistry, enzymatic catalysis, carbanions and organo- metallic chemistry.

"This multiservice approach will enable us to accompany our customers even more closely in the different phases of their products' lives: development, industrialization and market launch," says Jean-Claude Bravard, Rhodia's deputy president and head of fine organics. He adds that Rhodia will also strive to reduce the time between each of the production phases.

Last year, Rhodia also invested E30 million in custom synthesis expansions at Mulhouse, France, at Avonmouth, England.

< previous article(VIDEO - ICIS news Europe Lunchtime Bulletin 3 November 2009)

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly