In June 2016, pharmaceutical packaging company Sharp Packaging Solutions officially opened its Centre of Excellence for speciality, biological and cold chain packaging in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
The company has invested $45m to expand its contract packaging capability by 30% for its life sciences customers.
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The establishment of the Centre of Excellence marks the company’s third expansion in the Allentown campus since 2014. Sharp purchased the building in 2014 and completed renovations and interior construction in April 2016.
The company has expanded its existing packaging facility to meet growing industry demand for contract packaging services of bottled and blister packed pharmaceutical products, as well as speciality product and biologic package outsourcing.
Details of Sharp’s existing packaging facility in Pennsylvania
The existing facility is equipped with 40 enclosed packaging suites with high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters and pressure controllers, an 8,600-pallet capacity automated storage and temperature-controlled retrieval warehouse, and a 500-capacity cold storage space that can maintain temperatures of between 2°C and 8°C.
Sharp provides contract services such as customised, blister, bottle and flow wrap packaging; medical device and child-resistant packaging; vial and syringe labelling and kitting; serialisation and e-pedigree services; biotech pen assembly; speciality distribution; and a physician sampling programme.
Details of Sharp Packaging Solutions’ facility expansion
The new packaging facility is built on a 112,000ft² area next to the company’s existing 270,000ft² facilities at 7451 and 7529 Keebler Way. It houses state-of-the-art biologic and specialty product packaging units with comprehensive cold chain and serialisation capabilities.
The company moved its existing specialty and biologic packaging lines from Keebler Way to the new centre after its construction. Its cold storage capabilities can accommodate 600 pallets, double the existing refrigeration capacity.
The Centre of Excellence is also equipped with additional packaging and serialisation equipment to handle speciality packaging requirements and increase packaging capacity.
Four bottling lines will be added to the existing Keebler Way facility by consolidating all the speciality and biologic equipment at the Centre of Excellence by September 2016.
Marketing commentary on Sharp Packaging Solutions
Sharp provides unique commercial and clinical packaging solutions to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry through the design, development, manufacture and delivery stages of production.
The company consists of two dynamic international units, Sharp Packaging Solutions and Sharp Clinical Services. It currently employs 1,600 people at its state-of-the-art facilities in the US, UK, Netherlands and Belgium.
The company is known worldwide for its cost-effective packaging designs for blister packs, bottles, pouches and stick packs, as well as more complex products. It is also known for its clinical services division, which provides clinical supply chain services.
Sharp provides services from the drug development and manufacturing phase to clinical supplies packaging, labelling, distribution, qualified person auditing and comparator sourcing.
