Last Updated on: 28th January 2025, 04:56 pm
Upperton Pharma Solutions, a renowned UK-based contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO), has finalised the construction of its cutting-edge sterile manufacturing facility in Nottingham, UK.
The £7 million facility adds to the company’s existing 50,000 sq. ft Trent Gateway site and has been purpose-built to meet the updated requirements of the EU GMP Annex-1 guidelines. Spanning 7,000 sq. ft, the facility is designed to manufacture aseptic and terminally sterilised small volume liquids and powders intended for parenteral, nasal, and pulmonary applications.
This new site offers capabilities for formulation development, clinical manufacturing, and analytical testing, with capacity to produce batches of up to 2,000 vials, pre-filled syringes, and pre-filled cartridges for liquid formulations, alongside pre-sterilised powders.
The expansion marks a natural progression for Upperton, which already supports global biotech and pharmaceutical companies by developing and manufacturing small molecule and biological non-sterile oral, nasal, and pulmonary dosage forms, from early-stage development to late-stage clinical production.
Nikki Whitfield, Chief Executive Officer at Upperton, said: “We are delighted to complete the build of our sterile facility. The combined experience of our leadership team in sterile facility builds and subsequent operations ensures that we are ideally placed as a CDMO partner of choice for small to mid-sized biotech and pharma looking to get into the clinic quickly with fast access to sterile manufacturing services.”
The facility features two cutting-edge cleanrooms equipped with advanced VHP isolation technology, ensuring GMP-compliant manufacturing of sterile drug products. These new operations will benefit from Upperton’s established expertise in formulation development and quality control testing.
Jon Austwick, Director of Quality and Compliance at Upperton, remarked: “This expansion illustrates our continued investment in our capabilities to support drug developers to scale and accelerate the path to delivering safe and effective medicines to patients. The facility has been built with the highest level of quality and is a testament to our internal teams and build vendor who have worked tirelessly over the past 12 months to bring our vision to life.”
With the addition of sterile drug product manufacturing, Upperton strengthens its comprehensive service offering, which already includes formulation development, clinical trial supply, and late-stage production of non-sterile products for both small molecules and biologics.
As the commissioning process and the installation and validation of new equipment progress, Upperton will rely on its experienced research and development and analytical teams to conduct pre-formulation and stability studies for early-stage proof-of-concept products targeting parenteral, nasal, and pulmonary delivery.
