Navin Molecular, an Indian-headquartered CDMO, announced a Rs 10 Crore (approximately US$1.2 million) investment to construct a new 1,200-square-metre research and development facility at its site in Dewas, India. The new facility will increase the capacity for laboratory- and kilo-scale process development, as well as enhancing analytical development and testing capabilities to support the development and scale up of customer projects.
The new building will have 48 fume hoods for chemical process development, and will have specialised technology installed to carry out flow reactions and ozonolysis, as well as the capabilities to safely handle a wide range of hazardous chemistries. A new kilo-scale lab will be commissioned, with cylindrical vessels up to 100 litres in volume, to mimic conditions on the production plant, and provide flexible capacity to manufacture non-GMP batches of material for pre-clinical toxicology studies. Alongside the increase in process development capabilities, an additional analytical laboratory will be built, including state-of-the art instrumentation to support method validation and tech transfer of projects.
The investment will also see existing laboratories at Dewas being upgraded, and work began on the new facility in December 2024. It is expected that the project will be completed by May 2025, and the expansion will create up to 65 new jobs, doubling the size of the R&D team.
“Robust and thorough process development is crucial to ensure the chance of successful scale up, and customers are looking for partners that are flexible and have the capacity to take on projects with the minimum of delay to meet their demanding timelines,” said Jordi Robinson, Chief Commercial Officer at Navin Molecular. “This expansion will ensure that we can match these expectations, as well as increasing our technology offering through flow chemistry and ozonolysis, ensuring that we can continue to provide the highest quality, cost-effective manufacturing solutions for our customers.”
Navin Molecular was launched in 2023, and is the CDMO division of Navin Fluorine, focussed on supporting global pharmaceutical innovators. Its 47-acre state-of-the-art site in Dewas offers process research and development through to commercial manufacturing of a wide-range of regulatory starting materials and API intermediates. In July 2024, the company announced the building of a new 9,000-square-metre GMP manufacturing plant at Dewas, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2025.