BioDuro-Sundia Establishes New Drug Discovery Center in China

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Editor's note: this story was originally published on PharmTech.com.

BioDuro-Sundia, an Irvine, Calif.-based contract research, development, and manufacturing organization (CRDMO) announced on Oct. 2, 2024 that it has launched its new Compound Management Center in the Shanghai Free-Trade Zone in China. The center is housed in the company’s Waigaoqiao site (1), one of seven sites spread across the United States and China. The sites altogether employ a workforce totaling more than 2000 people.

The new center is described by BioDuro-Sundia as state-of-the-art, designed to enhance the CRDMO’s capabilities in the field of drug discovery by allowing for the systematic storage, handling, and management of compounds (1). Customers, the company said, will be able to take advantage of secure storage, comprehensively tracked inventories updated in real time, and samples ready to be accessed quickly in the interest of speedy delivery.

Combining with already existing drug discovery services, the center will expedite R&D processes, reduce costs, and accelerate new therapy candidate discoveries (1).

“Our new Compound Management Center represents a significant step forward in our commitment to providing world-class drug discovery services,” said Armin Spura, PhD, CEO of BioDuro-Sundia, in the press release disseminated by the company on October 2 (1). “By integrating this cutting-edge compound management system with our drug discovery platform, we can offer our clients faster, more reliable solutions to bring their new drug candidates to market, benefiting patients around the world.”

A compound storage laboratory with real-time temperature and humidity control will have the ability to manage more than 400,000 compounds, either solid or liquid, according to BioDuro-Sundia (1). It is equipped with a liquid handling station for fully automated workflows, while sample management software tracks steps at every point of the lifecycle. Services able to be offered include storage, weighing, dissolution, plating, liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) analysis, and distribution.

Almost a year ago, in November 2023, Shanghai was the beneficiary of more expansion in the industry, with MilliporeSigma, the US and Canada life science business of Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany, announcing at that time that it was opening the second phase of a new biologics testing center (2). This added 1500 square meters of lab space—notably, MilliporeSigma’s first biosafety laboratories in the Chinese market—to a facility and campus that first opened in 2022.

And elsewhere in the realm of drug discovery, Evotec announced on July 10, 2024 that it had entered into a multi-year master research collaboration and option and license agreement with Pfizer, under the terms of which the two companies would first focus on early discovery research for potential therapeutics targeting metabolic and infectious diseases. That work is being carried out at Evotec’s sites in France, namely its Campus Curie in Toulouse (3).

References

1. BioDuro-Sundia. BioDuro-Sundia Launches New Compound Management Center, Strengthening Drug Discovery Services. Press Release. Oct. 2, 2024.
2. MilliporeSigma. Millipore Sigma Expands Newest Biologics Testing Center in Shanghai. Press Release. Nov. 21, 2023.
3. Evotec. Evotec and Pfizer Collaborate to Advance Drug Discovery in France. Press Release. July 10, 2024.