Avéma Pharma Solutions Building New R&D Center

Avéma Pharma Solutions is building an expanded state-of-the-art R&D center at its new Miami facility. The new lab will be almost three times larger than the existing space and will help the company respond to increased customer demand for #formulation and #analyticaldevelopment in the support of small molecule, liquid and solid dose #Rx and #OTC drugs. The company has already seen growth in its R&D staff, which has expanded from 6 people to 17 over the past three years.

“Avéma is one of the few CDMOs that has R&D onsite. This allows us to provide support to our customers at every stage of their product’s life cycle, including product development, method development and validation, FDA approvals, pilot manufacturing, tech transfer and commercial scale up, all under the same roof and with the oversight of a single portfolio manager,” said Aaron Dely, Senior Director of Global Research & Development. “Our new lab will feature upgraded equipment such as walk in stability chambers that can simulate environmental conditions such as temperature, light and humidity as well as newer versions of our existing equipment. The value of having continuity from R&D/Tech Transfer support then seamlessly transitioning to commercial manufacturing is something our customers really value.”

Dely explained that Avéma has added staff with robust experience in many types of dosage forms, including tablets, capsules, oral suspensions, gummies and gums. Arthur Bestemen, for example, who joined Avéma as Associate Director of R&D Analytical, is a PhD Chemist who has more than 25 years of experience working in pharmaceutical product development, focusing on analytical research and quality control. He leads a team that works on method development and validation, something many stand-alone CMOs do not offer as in-house services, and which can significantly reduce product development times.

The addition of the new R&D center is just one part of Avéma’s overall expansion strategy. The new Miami facility adds 135,000 sq. ft to its footprint in south Florida and the company also added gummy manufacturing capabilities with a CFR 211- and CFR 111-compliant site in New York, Korsch presses to its tablet manufacturing capabilities and high-speed bottling lines to support liquid Rx products in Miami.