Novasep building world's largest chromatography plant

Novasep has announced its plans to build the world's largest chromatography plant for the pharmaceutical industry in France.

The company, which aims to develop cost-effective solutions for the production active molecules at high purity levels, will put 30 million euros into the new facility, which is to be located in Mourenx and will specialise in the production of a large volume commercial API (active pharmaceutical ingredient).

Novsep, a leading provider of purification-based manufacturing solutions, will add the new plant to its pre-existing site in the French town. It expects to have the facility up and running within 18 months.

Despite imposing such a challenging time scale on the project, the life sciences company said that there is growing demand for a highly-purified API.

This latest investment follows the opening of a new 2,000 square-metre factory opening in Shanghai, as well as a three million euro investment to expand its existing Highly Potent API manufacturing capabilities in Le Mans.

Patrick Glaser, president and chief executive of the company, said that demand for Novasep's advanced purification-based manufacturing capabilities is being driven by new developments in drug manufacturing that mean products coming to market are much more complex than they once were.

"This necessitates our third, and largest, global plant expansion in 2012," he added. "This successful project, the world's largest chromatography plant in the pharmaceutical industry, demonstrates the validity of the Novasep strategy, which is based on the combination of synthesis, biosynthesis and purification."

The company confirmed that the new plant, designed by its own engineers, will include its patented Varicol continuous chromatography technology, which is already used for commercial scale production of a number of chiral APIs.

It will install 1,200mm diameter columns in the new plant operated at up to 70 bars, the largest system of its kind ever built within the pharmaceutical industry.

As a result of the additional size, Novasep anticipates production of much more complex mixtures, with a solvent recovery system also planned that will allow for 99.9 per cent of solvents to be recycled.