Metrics Inc. has opened a new laboratory to support fast-track development of pharmaceutical products. The $1.6 million, 4,524-sq.-ft. facility, located on the company’s main campus in Greenville, NC, is engineered to provide maximum flexibility for early formulation and analytical method development. The facility is designed for preclinical development of early formulation prototypes and related analytical methods. Segregated from the main Metrics operations and containing fully dedicated equipment, the new processing suites have independent HVAC systems and state-of-the-art engineering controls.

In this laboratory setting, formulators and chemists will have significant autonomy to conduct development activities more quickly, according to Dr. Brad Gold, Metrics’ vice president of pharmaceutical development. “These suites offer our scientists tremendous flexibility, which will support the fast-track development of drug products,” Dr. Gold said. “Prototype formulations and methods developed in this lab will be transferred to the adjacent facility for further development and manufacture of clinical trial materials and registration batches. There, they will be manufactured under the exacting auspices of current Good Manufacturing Practice so that Metrics will continue to deliver proven scientific and operational excellence in oral solid dosage forms.”

The ground floor of the new facility consists of five processing rooms and one analytical laboratory. The second floor consists of workstations, office space and a conference room. This project increases to 16 the total number of processing rooms, which are in addition to the analytical laboratories and large-scale manufacturing and packaging operations that Metrics has available.

The company has also added to its equipment portfolio with a Gerteis Mini-Pactor, a high pressure-precise roller compactor that provides Metrics’ formulation development scientists greater flexibility in batch sizes and throughput.

Housed within Metrics’ main facility in Greenville, the new Gerteis Mini-Pactor has capacity ranging from 10 grams for pilot projects to 100 kilograms per hour for small-scale production, making it especially useful in a formulation development laboratory setting, according to Dr. Gold, who added, “While big pharma companies may already be familiar with this particular roller compactor, Metrics can be considered an early adopter among CDMOs. This equipment investment reflects Metrics’ ongoing commitment to operational excellence and to conducting science that is most meaningful to our clients and the patients we collectively serve.”

“The fast-track development laboratory and Gerteis Mini-Pactor represent continuing investment efforts at Metrics to support the changing needs of its contract services clients,” said Stefan Cross, president of Mayne Pharma USA, the parent company of Metrics.