Upperton completes build of new £15m development and GMP manufacturing facility

Leading UK contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO), Upperton Pharma Solutions has completed the build of its new development and GMP manufacturing headquarters in Nottingham, UK.

Situated less than two miles from Upperton’s current HQ, the facility houses ten new GMP manufacturing suites, quality control laboratories, and formulation development with pilot plant capabilities.

The new site provides Upperton with a manufacturing footprint increase from 1,300 sq.ft. to 13,000 sq.ft, and a significant expansion of analytical laboratory space, from 880 sq.ft. to 8,500 sq.ft. It has the capability to handle highly potent and controlled drugs in a range of dosage forms and support early formulation development, clinical trial supplies from Phase 1 to Phase 3, and niche-scale commercial manufacture. The £15m, 50,000 sq.ft. facility has been designed to increase Upperton’s operational footprint, enabling the CDMO to support more customer projects and meet larger-scale requirements.

The facility has benefited from a significant investment in commercial scale equipment, offering powder blending up to 250kg per batch, capsule filling up to 40,000 capsules/hour, dry granulation processing up to 100kg/hour, and tablet pressing up to 120,000 tablets/hour.

Nikki Whitfield, Chief Executive Officer at Upperton commented: “We are delighted with the progress of our Nottingham facility since we first began on this journey in January 2023. This build completion is a significant milestone for us and represents our significant growth as a company.

“By increasing the scale at which we can operate, we are looking forward to being able to offer our customers a smooth transition from early development, to clinical trials and commercial manufacturing for low volume, niche products – all at one, single site, with established project teams.”

Upperton will now begin the commissioning of the facility, along with the installation and validation of the new equipment. The goal is to become fully operational by Q4 of 2023 for development and non-GMP manufacturing, with a view to starting GMP operations in January 2024.