Chemical Week

pharmaceuticals & fine chemicalsPfizer is a major custom manufacturer ofstatins and HPAPIs via its contract manufacturingsubsidiary Pfizer CentreSource (PCS;Kalamazoo, MI), which has annual sales ofabout $400 million (CW, March 9, p. 24). Thecompany says it is optimistic that it will be ableto grow its cytotoxics sales “in the 15%/yearrange.” PCS recently installed a new cytotoxicshigh-containment tablet production facilityat Feucht, Germany. “A lot of our solid-dosagebusiness development effort during the pastyear has focused on marketing that capacity,”says Michael J. Kosko, v.p./global contractmanufacturing at PCS. “We hope to be addingcapsules in the near future,” Kosko says. “Themarket place has been very receptive to whatwe have to offer.”Aerojet Fine Chemicals says HPAPI chemistryis one of its core growth areas, alongsidesimulated moving bed (SMB) chromatography,and explosive reactions including azidechemistry. The company says it is expandingHPAPI capacity “significantly” this year tomeet increasing customer demand. Aerojetsays it is generating sales growth of about15%/year in HPAPIs, SMB chromatography,and azide chemistry. All of Aerojet’s facilitiesare at a large site at Rancho Cordova. Aerojethas been put up for sale by its parentcompany GenCorp. Furtherdetails were not disclosed, althoughAerojet says it expects a buyer tobe announced within the next fewmonths.Aerojet has sales in HPAPIs ofabout $15 million/year about 20%of GenCorp.’s total. The companyanticipates this will grow at about15%/year during the next fiveyears. Aerojet has three stand-alone buildingsat Rancho Cordova dedicated to HPAPIproduction each with separate sets of utilityand support and water systems, and reactorsranging from 50 gal to 200 gal. Each also hasseparating and drying capability, includingfilters and conical dryers, the company says.“These two buildings have produced over1 m.t. of HPAPIs during 2004, running atAerojet isexpandingHPAPIcapacity‘significantly.’about 70% utilization,” says Joseph Carleone,president of Aerojet. “One of these two buildingsis currently being expanded,” Carleonesays. The project will increase capacity at thebuilding by about 30% and willalso make manufacture at the facilitymuch more flexible. Aerojet’salso plans another HPAPI buildingin 2007, he says.Aerojet’s third HPAPI buildingfeatures an SMB chromatographyunit used to purify cytotoxic products,including, the cancer drugpaclitaxel and its derivatives. Thebuilding also houses two 20-galreactors, together with filtering and dryingequipment. This facility was built as part ofan alliance with Bioxel Pharma under whichAerojet produces paclitaxel for Bioxel. It hascapacity to produce 120 kilograms/year ofpure paclitaxel. “Orders of existing productsare quite good. Several of our cancer productshave multi-year agreements extending through2009 and 2010,” Carleone says. The companyIN PRECIOUS METALS CHEMISTRY ONE STEP AHEADThe Precious Metals Chemistry business unit is your global partner for: bulk scale production of high specification precious metals chemicals and catalysts state of the art precious metal refining and separation technologies extensive know-how in organometallic chemistry and catalysis together with Solvias a unique offering for “Enantioselective catalysis“Inorganic CompoundsFor applications in: Supported catalysts Homogeneous catalysts Electroplating Fuel cellsOrganometallicChemicals and CatalystsUsed in: Life Science industry Silicone industry Bulk, specialities andPolymers PetrochemicalsRefiningTechnologies High PGM return rates Fast recovery times Wide range of materialsbeing processedContact our dedicated team of catalytic chemists and marketing experts! ecolyst@eu.umicore.com www.umicore.comUmicore tel (Europe, Asia) + 49 6181 59 24 04 Umicore tel (USA) +1 908 226 2000 Umicore AG & Co. KG – Precious Metals Chemistry – P.O. Box 1351 – D-63457 Hanau-Wolfgang – Germany