An API boost

ESSEN, Germany—Evonik recently announced the €25-million first stage of a long-term program to expand the capacity of its Dossenheim and Hanau facilities in Germany to support growing pharmaceutical demand for the contract manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and advanced intermediates within Europe.

This first stage is scheduled to be completed by the middle of 2021, with the entire project expected to be finalized prior to 2024.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the focus of many pharmaceutical companies to have European-based manufacturing sites that can support the production of their life-saving drug products for reliable supply to regional healthcare markets,” said Thomas Riermeier, senior vice president of Evonik’s Health Care business line.

Added Dr. Andreas Meudt, vice president of exclusive synthesis for the Health Care business line of Evonik: “In addition to increasing our production capacity for APIs and advanced intermediates within Europe, the expansion of the two multipurpose cGMP sites in Dossenheim and Hanau, Germany will widen Evonik’s ability to support highly complex customer projects.”

Such complex API projects, which are often associated with oncological, antiviral and other specialized drug products, typically require a range of advanced technologies including continuous processing, highly pure PEGs and mPEGs, catalysis, and cryogenic chemistry.