Boehringer to establish new pilot plant facility in Germany

With the investment, the company expects to make sure that the supply of substances from the well-stocked research pipeline is available for clinical studies in adequate amounts.

Boehringer board chairman Andreas Barner said in order to continue offering new products in therapeutic areas with significant unmet medical needs, such as diabetes, cancer, hepatitis C, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and asthma, the company need to invest now.

The new technical center, with 15 chemical reactors of 100 to 300l volumes, is scheduled for completion in early 2014.

The new pilot facility with a useable area of 2,700m² will accommodate four manufacturing bays including four synthesis laboratories to handle the transfer of processes from laboratory to technical scale.

Boehringer development corporate senior vice president Wolfgang Baiker said, "The pilot facility will make it possible to produce sufficient amounts to provide active ingredients from the global group’s own research and development for later phases."