Upperton Pharma Solutions, a UK-based contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) has invested £500,000 to expand its tablet manufacturing capabilities with the addition of tablet processing equipment for wet granulation, roller compaction, tablet compression, hardness testing, dedusting, weight sorting and tablet coating. This investment will enhance the company’s development and manufacturing capabilities while strengthening its ability to support clients’ research, development and clinical manufacturing needs.
 
Tablets remain the most popular choice of dosage form. Upperton’s tablet services and recent client projects have included: feasibility studies, early lead optimization on bioavailability, formulation and process development, scale-up from laboratory to clinical manufacture and the clinical trial manufacture of phases I and II supplies.
 
This investment in the downstream tablet processing capability compliments Upperton’s expertise and capability in spray drying as an enabling technology for improving solubility and bioavailability of poorly soluble drugs.
 
“This suite of equipment has considerably expanded Upperton’s capabilities and scale with respect to tablets. It has enabled us to recently onboard a number of new tablet dosage form projects and provides us with enhanced capabilities to offer our clients a wide range of tablet processing options,” said Paul Kelsall, director of clinical manufacture, Upperton. “We now have the tools to offer tablet as a dosage form to support client projects from early material characterization, design of experiments concepts, first in human studies through to phase II clinical manufacture and technical transfer support.”
 
The recently acquired equipment includes:

• Futorque Tablet machine from KG Pharma, a tablet press with instrumentation and flexibility to be used for both R&D studies and clinical production runs;
• Hara Labcoat, a multi-pan coating system with interchangeable pans and a coating process controls that are easily scalable;
• Vector TFC roller compactor, a small-scale densification and dry granulation machine specifically designed to minimize product loss whilst producing compacted material using a range of process conditions; and
• a full range of ancillary equipment including weight sorting from CI Precision, dedusting, metal checking and in-process testing from Kramer.