AGC Inc. has unveiled plans for a major expansion of facilities at its Chiba Plant in Japan that will result in an approximately tenfold increase in the company’s GMP-compliant synthetic pharmaceutical intermediate and active ingredient production capacity. The new capacity is set to come online in October 2019.

AGC began developing and manufacturing pharmaceutical and agrochemical intermediates and active ingredients on a contract basis in the 1980s. Leveraging its edge in fluorine technologies and experience in in-house drug discovery and other fields, AGC now offers a range of CDMO services tailored to customer needs.

While AGC has to date mainly provided CDMO services for the development stage of new drugs, this expansion will give AGC the end-to-end capability to produce commercial drugs too, allowing it to deliver more advanced one-stop solutions. The new facilities will also be capable of producing hard-to-handle active ingredients, such as the highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredients (HPAPIs) typically used in cancer therapy.

The AGC Group’s “AGC plus” management policy identifies the life sciences as one of its strategic businesses. Moving forward, the group says it will continue to invest in the capacity needed to meet ongoing growth in demand for pharmaceutical intermediate and active ingredient CDMO services.