Inflexion invests into Upperton for manufacturing expansion

Inflexion announces it has made a substantial investment into Upperton Pharma Solutions (Upperton), alongside the founder and the management team who will continue to lead the business. The investment is being made from Inflexion Enterprise Fund V.

Nottingham-based Upperton was founded in 1999 and conducts formulation and analytical development and clinical trial manufacturing services for small to mid sized pharma clients. Upperton uses its expertise to develop a wide range of finished dosage formats for their clients (typically during early phase clinical trials), their work can often be the difference between success and failure for the pharma company. Alongside dosage form development, Upperton also specialises in spray drying, a particle engineering technology which can be used to ensure targeted delivery of drugs to the lungs and nasal cavity or provide solutions to pharma clients who have challenges with poorly soluble molecules.

As part of the investment, Inflexion will support Upperton in expanding its scale and capabilities commencing with the build of a new, larger manufacturing facility, allowing Upperton to extend its services to support later stages of clinical trials and commercial manufacturing.

Simon Turner, managing partner at Inflexion, commented: “Upperton is serving a real need of the pharma industry and the strength of its expertise and service offering have made it a clear leader within its niche. We look forward to working with the experienced and highly motivated management team to drive the opportunity further.”

Richard Johnson, founder and chief scientific officer at Upperton, added: ‘We are immensely proud of the Upperton journey and to have had the opportunity to be part of our customers development programmes over the past 20 years. The investment from Inflexion allows us to expedite the capability and capacity expansion required to support our customers further in their clinical development. We are really looking forward to the next Upperton chapter and are delighted to be moving forward in partnership with Inflexion.”