Sterling Pharma Solutions launches £11 million Material Science Centre

Sterling has launched its multi-million-pound Material Science Centre at its headquarters in Dudley, Northumberland, UK.

Global contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO), Sterling Pharma Solutions, has officially opened its new multi-million-pound Material Science Centre (MSC), after announcing the investment last year.

The three-floor Material Science Centre comprises six ISO Class 8 cleanrooms, which house four milling and micronisation suites. The new facility, which is the latest step in the company’s continued growth plans, also contains warehousing and workshop facilities dedicated to the milling operations, as well as a new fully equipped solid state laboratory and an analytical services laboratory and write up area.

Kevin Cook, Chief Executive Officer at Sterling, said: “The centre will provide a range of specialist solid state chemistry and milling services to complement the services we already provide to our customer base.

“This investment is in direct response to customer requirements to bring our solid form services, which have previously been outsourced to third parties, in-house. The centre will allow us to manage more of the product processing and as a result improve efficiencies; mitigating risk and allowing us to provide our customers with more cost-effective solutions. It will also help to reduce overall manufacturing time as we continue to develop more efficient processes.”

Sterling Pharma Solutions’ solid form development team will be housed within the facility and will work to optimise existing processes across four connected areas of solid form investigation including, salt/cocrystal screening, polymorph screening, pre-formulation evaluation and crystallisation development.

As a result of the ongoing pandemic and visitor restrictions, Sterling will be launching the centre virtually. This will include a webinar hosted by Sterling’s experts to introduce the facility, team and services. You can find out more about the facility on Sterling Pharma Solutions’ website here.

A virtual tour of the facility will also be released next month to allow external stakeholders to take a closer look at the new facility, remotely and safely.