Avista Pharma upgrades, expands capacity at plant in Longmont

LONGMONT — Avista Pharma Solutions Inc.has completed facility upgrades that effectively double the company’s active pharmaceutical-ingredient manufacturing capacity at its site in Longmont.

Avista Pharma Solutions was formed in 2016 when Minnesota-based Accuratus Lab Services acquired Boulder-based Array BioPharma’s manufacturing and controls operations at 2620 Trade Centre Ave. in Longmont

Accuratus Lab Services provides analytical and microbial testing services to the medical-device and biopharmaceutical industries, in addition to manufacturing certain consumer products.

Avista Pharma upgraded three of its GMP drug substance manufacturing suites and added a fourth suite. GMP, or good manufacturing practices, are the practices required in order to conform to the guidelines recommended by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for active pharmaceutical products.

The facility’s non-GMP capacity was also doubled with the addition of two large-scale development suites.

Among the new equipment installations were four walk-in hoods, three 50-gallon glass-lined reactors, three Hastelloy agitated filter dryers, and various small-scale reactors and mixing vessels. The new equipment will provide additional scale and will enable processing of complex and potent categories of chemical compounds. Safety and containment controls were also upgraded during the expansion.

“Our investments in suite upgrades and capacity expansion in Longmont have transformed the site into a world-class API manufacturing facility,” said Ken Domagalski, general manager of Avista Pharma’s plant in Longmont.

Avista Pharma also is expanding its drug-product manufacturing capacity and analytical capacity, as well as adding walk-in stability storage chambers into the 20,000-square-foot expansion announced last year.

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