Archimica Investments in Manufacturing and Technology

CPhI  Worldwide, Paris (Oct. 3, 2006-Archimica (Frankfurt, Germany, www.archimica.com), participating in its first CPhI Worldwide exhibition since being launched as new company earlier this year, outlined manufacturing expansions, technology additions, and recent projects at its facilities in the United States and Europe. Archimica was launched as a new company following the sale of the pharmaceutical fine chemicals business of Clariant (Muttenz, Switzerland, www.clariant.com) in July 2006 to the private equity firm TowerBrook Capital Partners.

Ralf Pfirmann, global business director of Archimica, says the company’s recent investments are in line with a strategy to add differentiated capacity and technologically intensive capabilities. To that end, the company has recently completed or is planning several manufacturing expansions. These include a $6-million expansion to support production of an antiviral active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) at Sandycroft, United Kingdom and Origgio, Italy. The Sandycroft site will manufacture a CGMP intermediate and the Origgio site will be involved in finishing the bulk API. Roughly 60% of the project investment is targeted for the UK site. The company also invested $1 million at its facility in Bon Encontre, France to support the manufacturing of an antibiotic for the US market.

In the US, Archimica expanded its facility in Springfield, Missouri to support the manufacture of an antiviral drug and also expanded its controlled substance manufacturing. Earlier this year, it began producing an opiod regulated by the Drug Enforcement Agency (Washington, DC, www.dea.gov) and began manufacturing the attention-deficit drug methylphenidate and its single enantiomer dexmethylphenidate. It also added new technologies, which included the development of large-scale titanium tetrachloride capabilities, chiral epoxide capability, and new methodologies to manufacture heterocyclicboronic acids.

Archimica also announced it is or will soon be manufacturing several generic APIs, including oxacarbazepine, stavudine and didanosine.