Porton Fine Chemicals, Ltd., a China-based contract development and manufacturing organization serving the global pharmaceutical industry, opened its USA's Technology Center in Cranbury, New Jersey. The facility is expected to house approximately 75 associates at full strength.

According to the firm, “this new venture will serve the US biopharmaceutical industry, offering drug development and cross-lifecycle research, development and manufacturing solutions from a strategic location convenient to East Coast and West Coast-based companies."

Company officials said they choose the location because it is conveniently located off the NJ Turnpike [I-95] near many of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies in New Jersey, and with easy flight access to the innovation hotbeds of Boston and California; PTC can be reached in 45 minutes by road from Newark International Airport.

Featuring state of the art assets and experienced process scientists, engineers, analysts and support staff, PTC aims to deliver innovative solutions and compelling value on complex synthetic routes, next-generation processes and assembly of specialized molecules, officials explained.

Today's pharmaceutical company pipelines are dominated by complex molecules, posing formidable synthesis, scale-up and containment challenges, company experts said. According to Dr. John Dillon, Senior Vice President of Porton Fine Chemicals and President of PortonUSA, ADCs exemplify a "Perfect Storm" of manufacturing difficulties: unstable APIs and toxic intermediates requiring high containment, complex analytics, purifications and parenteral requirements.

"We see high demand for this type of niche process development and manufacturing as companies seek innovative external manufacturing partners who can bring considerable experience to reliably execute such projects, many of which involve single batches representing >$1 million in value,” he said.

"Building on our excellent track record and feedback from our customers, PTC is a key element of our global strategy to offer advanced technologies, diversify our service offerings, and enhance our engagement with customers from close proximity, ultimately helping them more efficiently meet their drug development and commercialization goals. It will also complement our new Shuitu Technology Center [Chongqing, China] to be opened by end-2016," Drs. Andrew Xu, President/Co-Chairman of PFC and Raj Iyer, Chief Business Officer, PFC explained.

"Leveraging the critical mass of experienced process chemists in this region and integrating PTC's CRO capabilities with PFC's manufacturing expertise centered in a lower cost geography such as China will offer powerful end-to-end solutions and seamless supply chains to the biopharmaceutical community," according to Dr. Todd Nelson, Vice President, Porton USA and General Manager, PTC.