Cambrex On Track to Triple Workforce in High Point with $30M Investment

Cambrex Corp., a contract manufacturer of small-molecule therapeutics, is expanding its facilities and workforce in High Point to meet growing demand for its services. 

Over the next three years the company will invest $30 million in facilities and equipment and hire 78 new employees, according to the terms of an incentives package of up to $428,400 approved by the High Point City Council earlier this month. The new jobs will pay an average annual salary of $78,438.
 
The company in April purchased a 35,000-square-foot building and an adjacent 45,000-square-foot facility that it had been leasing on Mendenhall Oaks Parkway in the Piedmont Centre business park. It will upfit the larger building with kilo-scale and pilot-scale vessels, continuous-reaction production equipment and chemistry, engineering and analytical development laboratories.

Expecting 150 employees at High Point site

When the facilities are finished and new employees are hired to staff them, Cambrex expects to have about 150 employees working in High Point, said Steven Klosk, the company’s president and chief executive officer. That’s nearly triple the number it had in October 2016 when it established its business there by acquiring PharmaCore, a privately held clinical contract manufacturer, for $25 million.

“We have invested over $5 million at the site, and this is set to continue with both the strategic building acquisition and subsequent fit-out,” Klosk said.

The expansion will give Cambrex added capacity for clinical supply manufacturing and analytical and chemical development. The new facility will also focus on the development of new technologies, innovative chemistry and engineering solutions as well as expertise in technology transfer to commercial scale.

“The purchase of the High Point site gives us greater control over the future of our North American business to allow us to invest in making this a central hub and leader in clinical supply, process and technology development in the U.S.,” Klosk said.

Expansion comes on the heels of May clinical production addition

The expansion follows the completion of a $2.4 million clinical manufacturing suite in May to meet increasing demand for clinical advanced pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and the completion and validation of a $3.2 million analytical laboratory in April 2017.

The High Point facility produces complex APIs and intermediates requiring multi-step synthetic processes in batch sizes from milligrams to 100 kg in support of clinical trials from Phase I through to Phase III. The site is licensed by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to manufacture Schedule II to Schedule V controlled substances. 

Cambrex is a global company that offers APIs, finished dose forms, advanced intermediates and enhanced drug delivery products for branded and generic pharmaceuticals. Its development and manufacturing capabilities include enzymatic biotransformations, high-potency APIs, high-energy chemical synthesis, controlled substances and continuous processing.

Earlier this month Cambrex completed the purchase of Halo Pharma, a dosage-form contract manufacturer with production facilities in Whippany, N.J., and Montreal, for about $425 million. The acquisition will allow Cambrex to enter the large and growing finished dosage form market. Halo specializes in oral solids, liquids, creams, and sterile and non-sterile ointments.

Before the Halo acquisition, Cambrex had about 1,200 employees at the company’s headquarters in East Rutherford N.J., and at manufacturing facilities in High Point; Charles City, Iowa; Karlskoga, Sweden; Paullo, Italy; Tallinn, Estonia; and Wiesbaden, Germany.

The company is publicly held with shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CBM.