Key milestone met in project aimed at accelerating drug development

A new platform to accelerate drug development has been created through the collaboration of Juniper Pharma Services (a subsidiary of Juniper Pharmaceuticals), and CrystecPharma in the Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI).

This is a key milestone in the multi-partner project, which is aimed at moving medicines from research to market with increased speed and quality. Currently, CrystecPharma’s supercritical fluid technology platform is on-site at the contract development and manufacturing organisation’s (CDMO’s), Juniper Pharma Services, facility where validation is being performed to allow for its use in the production of clinical trial materials.

“Our progress on the AMSCI project with CrystecPharma and other consortium partners brings us within reach of a commercially viable platform for the advanced manufacturing of next generation medicines,” explained Dr Claire Madden-Smith, senior vice-president at Juniper Pharma Services. “Innovation and flexibility is at the heart of the AMSCI project. The work we have carried out with CrystecPharma illustrates the value of supply chain collaboration in enhancing medicine manufacturing and ultimately benefiting patients around the world.”

“I am very proud of the work CrystecPharma and Juniper Pharma Services, along with the rest of the consortium partners, have undertaken. Moving from the establishment of the collaboration to the production of GMP materials in just 18 months will be quite an achievement, hence the interest we are seeing from many drug developers with a portfolio of relevant compounds,” said Paul Thorning, CEO at CrystecPharma. “We also have to remember that this has never been done before. Our equipment combined with Juniper’s expertise is the only project of its type in the world and is truly innovative in terms of using modified supercritical fluid technology (mSAS) for the manufacture of smarter, higher quality pharmaceutical products.

“The sum of the consortium is certainly stronger than its individual parts and the AMSCI is reinforcing the UK’s position as the best in the world at drug development innovation.”