SAFC Pharma Expands Protein Capacity

SAFC Pharma, a member of the Sigma-Aldrich Group, is expanding its cCMP protein purification capacity to meet market demand for therapeutic proteins from plant- and animal-sourced starting materials. When completed in April of 2007, the natural and recombinant plant protein purification facility will be one of the world’s largest therapeutic protein production sites.

The new operations, part of a 400,000 sq.-ft St. Louis, MO manufacturing campus, will feature separate plant and animal protein processing facilities to eliminate potential cross-contamination. A natural and recombinant plant proteins facility will occupy 22,000 sq.-ft. for its upstream and downstream processing operations. Also, there will be a 20,000 sq.-ft. animal-sourced proteins facility for upstream processing. This will be supported by an area that contains more than 300,000 sq.-ft. of total capacity. Downstream animal-sourced purification will take place in an adjacent 5,000 sq.-ft. clean room suite.

“SAFC is a recognized leader in cGMP purification of therapeutic proteins from natural-sourced material,” said SAFC president, Frank Wicks. “Recent successes in the transgenic plant market combined with advancements of several of our natural APIs derived from plants have provided impetus to expand our capacity. We have several projects moving into late-stage clinical trials and commercial manufacturing and are expanding to meet growing customer demand.”

SAFC recently expanded its capacity and technology with the purchase of the SAFC Arklow, Ireland facility; a large-scale API manufacturing site with 90,000 liters of total cGMP capacity; the acquisition of SAFC Pharmorphix, a Cambridge, U.K.-based solid-state research company; and an $18 million dollar expansion of the SAFC Madison high-potency chemistry facility.