Symeres Expands Spray Drying Capabilities in Cranbury, NJ

Editor’s Take: This expansion shows growing demand from biotech and pharmaceutical companies for partners that can support drug discovery, API development, formulation and analytical work in a coordinated way.

Symeres, a contract research, development, and manufacturing organization (CRDMO), has expanded its spray drying capabilities at its Cranbury, New Jersey, Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls (CMC) development site to support formulation development for poorly soluble and development-challenged small molecule drug candidates.

The expanded capability is designed to support bioavailability enhancement strategies, including amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs), particle engineering and solubility optimization for compounds progressing from preclinical development through Phase II clinical activities.

The investment strengthens Symeres’ integrated CMC offering by combining spray drying, formulation sciences, analytical characterization, solid-state sciences and process development within a single development environment. This enables sponsors to progress from early formulation screening through to clinical-ready material within one coordinated scientific framework, reducing tech-transfer risk, accelerating decision-making and improving development continuity.

“Our investment in spray drying reflects our commitment to supporting customers across the entire drug development journey,” said Henning Steinhagen, CEO of Symeres. “This expanded capability further strengthens our ability to support complex molecules through development and into the clinic. By combining discovery, development and CMC expertise within one organization, we can help clients move programs forward more efficiently and with greater confidence.”

The expansion comes as pharmaceutical and biotech companies face increasing pressure to accelerate timelines for increasingly complex small molecule candidates, many of which present significant formulation and bioavailability challenges.

The Cranbury site now supports laboratory-scale and pilot-scale spray drying workflows for a range of formulation development activities, including rapid material screening, process optimization and scalable process development. The platform is particularly suited to Biopharmaceutical Classification System (BCS) Class II and IV compounds, highly lipophilic molecules and targeted therapies requiring enhanced oral exposure.

By integrating spray drying within its broader CMC platform, Symeres strengthens its position as a single-source partner for drug substance development, formulation and analytical development, enabling technologies and clinical-phase manufacturing. The unified approach helps clients streamline development activities while maintaining scientific continuity across programs.