Last week on Wednesday 4th May, Johnson Matthey Fine Chemicals held the official opening of its recently expanded Cambridge facility. The day gave attendees the opportunity to tour both old and new areas of the facility and listen to presentations from industry experts. The extremely successful event was well attended by over 50 customers, industry representatives and journalists, as well as Johnson Matthey staff and scientists.
The day began with a welcome registration and buffet lunch, followed by an introductory talk from the General Manager of Johnson Matthey European Pharma Solutions, Dr Bernhard Paul. Before the official opening and tours commenced, the attendees were given a presentation by Dr Peter Spargo from Spargo Pharma Consulting on Outsourced Chemical Development: Challenges, Capabilities and Connectivities. Sir Simon Campbell, former President of the Royal Society of Chemistry, had the honour of cutting the four coloured ribbons marking the official opening of the newly expanded site and was introduced by Antoine Bordet, European Managing Director at Johnson Matthey Fine Chemicals. Tours then commenced where Johnson Matthey staff spoke passionately about their roles at the Cambridge site and had the opportunity to show attendees the hi-tech new laboratories and describe the technologies that they work with on a daily basis. The busy day was rounded off with a three-course meal in the beautiful setting of Queens College, Cambridge. BBC Radio 4 presenter, Helen Keen, gave a humorous after-dinner speech on rocket science.
Johnson Matthey Fine Chemicals was delighted to have been able to share this special day with all who attended and give insight into the state-of-the-art new facilities in Cambridge. “We are excited that attendees had the opportunity to exclusively tour our fantastic new facilities here at the Cambridge site” said Antoine Bordet. “The site supports our expanding global pharma services offering, enabling our customers with the rapid development and sustainable manufacture of pharmaceuticals.”
The recently expanded facility now offers route scouting, process development, optimisation and scale-up of heterogeneous, homogeneous and biocatalytic processes, as well as non-GMP kilo-scale manufacturing of APIs and intermediates for pre-clinical and toxicology studies. The Cambridge site also includes the Pharmorphix® solid form sciences business, which Johnson Matthey acquired in October 2015, and is one of the eleven global sites within Johnson Matthey’s Fine Chemicals division. The company’s teams of scientists work collaboratively across these sites to deliver products and services through four core offerings: Custom Pharma Solutions, Catalysts, Controlled Substances, and APIs & Life Cycle Management.