Pfizer CentreOne Expands on Two Fronts

Highly potent OSD and fill-finish capabilities have been added at different sites.

Pfizer CentreOne, the contract manufacturing organization (CMO) embedded within Pfizer and created by the merger of Pfizer CentreSource with Hospira One 2 One, has added the manufacturing of highly potent oral solid dosage (OSD) medicines to its portfolio from the site at Newbridge in Ireland. This came just a month after the company had expanded its fill-finish capabilities at the headquarters site in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Newbridge, which is near the Irish capital, Dublin, has long been involved in contract manufacturing and packaging highly potent, non-cytotoxic OSD medicines with advanced technologies for internal Pfizer use. It has approvals from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and their equivalents in Japan and Brazil.

As well as conventional manufacturing processes, the team at Newbridge has experience with compounds requiring such complex processes as the modification of powder and particle properties to create novel formulations or those with enhanced solubility and dissolution properties. Its specialized technologies include active coating, low-dosage formulations and modified and extended release in Occupational Exposure Bands 1-5 for highly active compounds, hormones, immunosuppressants, sensitizers and controlled drugs.

Fill-finish services were added at Kalamazoo in February. The site will now provide vial-filling of sterile suspensions as well as small molecules and biologics. Vice President and General Manager Peter Stevenson called Kalamazoo the “natural choice” as it has been carrying out contract manufacturing for over 40 years on the API side and has over 65 years of experience in injectable fill-finish, as well as on-site technical, manufacturing science, regulatory affairs and quality teams.

According to a recent Nice Insight Survey across seven sectors of the pharmaceutical industry and covering the most active companies that Nice Insight tracks, Pfizer CentreOne was ranked category leader in no fewer than six categories in the CDMO sector: clinical- and commercial-scale small molecule drug substance, clinical- and commercial-scale solid dose drug product, commercial-scale large molecule drug substance and drug product fill-finish.

Survey respondents were invited to assess various aspects of companies’ products and services, including production operations, laboratory services and specialized offerings. They rated companies on their operational capabilities and such key performance benchmarks as quality, reliability, affordability, productivity, innovation and regulatory performance.

 

Nigel Walker

Mr. Walker is the founder and managing director of That’s Nice LLC, a research-driven marketing agency with 20 years dedicated to life sciences. Nigel harnesses the strategic capabilities of Nice Insight, the research arm of That’s Nice, to help companies communicate science-based visions to grow their businesses. Mr. Walker earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic design with honors from London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, England.

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