Cambrex Corporation, a manufacturer of small molecule innovator and generic active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), has expanded pilot plant capabilities at its High Point, NC, facility with the installation of a fourth reactor suite. The $2.4 million investment will increase the site’s reactor capacity by around 30%.

The new 400 square-foot suite, which is being constructed to meet growing business demand, will feature two 2,000 liter reactors and a 0.6 square-meter Hastelloy filter dryer, and is expected to be fully operational by early 2018.

“This expansion will facilitate the scheduling of cGMP campaigns for our customers and assist in meeting clinical deadlines,” said Brian Swierenga, vice president, operations and site director for Cambrex High Point. “In addition, with the new filter dryer we will be able to run small scale batches to demonstrate their feasibility for scale-up.”

In a second investment at the High Point site, Cambrex is to upgrade its analytical chromatography data systems for QC and analytical R&D to new, Empower 3 software. Empower will be introduced in the third and fourth quarters this year and will bring enhanced capability, integrity and compliance to the site’s analytical systems, in line with the increasingly stringent demands of the FDA and EMA among other agencies.