The 33,500 sq ft facility was acquired in 2006 from SynPro Corp and has since been the subject of two expansions to boost Agilent’s capabilities in this area of manufacturing services.
Agilent’s latest expansion of the Boulder, Colorado, US facility will enable it to produce “several hundred kilograms of therapeutic oligonucleotides per year”, helping it meet clients’ demands for quantities ranging from preclinical to commercial launch.
James Powell, Agilent's Nucleic Acids Solutions Division (NASD) general manager, said: "We now have the ability to meet our customers' growing needs with facilities, equipment and expertise across a broad range of nucleic acid APIs."
Following its acquisition of SynPro in 2006 Agilent estimated the combined RNA and DNA synthesis market was worth approximately $700m (€515m) and predicted growth rates of 10 to 20 per cent per year.
Details of the expansion
As part of the facility enlargement, NASD has boosted large-scale nucleic acid synthesis, purification and drying capacity. This has been achieved by the installation of a 1 mol synthesiser capable of producing kilo quantities of API per synthesis batch.
In addition downstream processing capability has been upgraded by installing a 30 litre per minute chromatography system and two multi-kilo lyophilisation units.
The expansion has also boosted related infrastructure and added reaction vessels to handle custom conjugation chemistries and duplex annealing of siRNAs, "addressing the fastest growth segment of the oligonucleotide market."
To assist with the expansion of its oligonucleotide manufacturing services Agilent acquired all of the assets of Dowpharma's Nucleic Acid Medicines Business in 2008.