Sharp Clinical Services is investing £9.5m on new multiple-phase pharmaceutical manufacturing, packaging and distribution facility in Wales, UK.
The Welsh Government is also investing £500,000 in the project, will help the company to provide better services for phase III clinical and commercial services.
Expected to complete by late 2018, the initial phase of the expansion will comprise of acquisition and overhaul of 110,000 ft² facility within the 10-acre site in Rhymney, South Wales.
The company will initially focus on 75,000ft² of space at the site, which will have the capacity to hold potential for further significant capacity expansion.
Developing to replace the firm’s existing site in Crickhowell of Powys, the new facility will triple Sharp’s clinical service capacity that will serve global pharmaceutical, biotech and clinical research sectors.
Sharp’s new European clinical centre of excellence will include enhanced manufacturing and analytical, as automated bottling, blistering and serialization capabilities. It will also offer IRT services for clinical trial management.
The investment is expected to create around 73 new jobs in the region.
Sharp Clinical Services president Frank Lis said: “We are currently working at capacity at our site in Crickhowell, so this investment gives us a blank canvas to design a modern contract packaging, manufacturing and distribution facility that meets the evolving needs of drug development companies with single or multiple products at any clinical scale.
“The move to the Rhymney site will enable us to offer expanded capacity, scalability and automation, meaning we can simultaneously support multiple large scale Phase III studies, as well as projects at an earlier trial stage.”
