Pharmaceutical Product Development, (PPD) has completed an expansion of its clinical supplies facility in Athlone, Ireland, that will enable the company to double its packaging warehousing capabilities and quadruple its distribution services. Those increases are the result of PPD more than tripling the size of the facility as part of its long-term strategy to expand its global depot network. The facility now features 20,000 square feet of space to support the company’s ability to store, package and label for the clinical trials PPD conducts for its clients.

“The expansion of our clinical supplies facility in Athlone represents an important investment in the continued growth of our global operations,” said Susan Atkinson, Ph.D., senior vice president of global biometrics. “Our ability to expand our support of clinical trials enables us to meet our clients’ growing demand for these services in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This strategic location makes it operationally and financially efficient to ship supplies to any of those countries, often directly to investigative sites, which can result in faster turnaround at lower cost for our clients, and more efficient and effective operations for PPD.”

The company’s clinical supplies services and supply chain management are complemented by an experienced qualified person (QP) staff that serves an integral role in the overall supply chain management by facilitating the timely release of supplies. The QP team also offers consulting to help streamline the process and advise on European Union good manufacturing practices (GMP) compliance, particularly related to investigational medicinal products and the auditing of third parties.

The Athlone operation also is able to provide a wide variety of ancillary supplies, such as syringes, IV pumps and other machinery needed by investigative sites. PPD’s clinical supplies operation also offers its clients dedicated project managers who serve as a single point of contact, and a centralized import/export department to support all aspects of the movement of clinical supplies.

The Athlone facility serves as PPD’s European hub for clinical supplies, and is one of five depots PPD maintains around the world—China, Russia, South Africa and Ukraine are the others. At the same time, clinical supplies oversees a network of strategic depots elsewhere across the globe.

“This is another important boost for Athlone and the Midlands,” said Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton TD. “PPD’s clinical supplies facility has made a significant contribution to the Athlone area, and today’s announcement that it is expanding its facility is very welcome. Accelerating employment growth in every region of the country is an important part of the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs. I look forward to working closely with PPD as it continues to grow in Athlone.”

This development is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation through IDA Ireland.

“PPD’s expansion of its clinical supplies operations in Athlone is warmly welcomed by IDA Ireland and adds to the continued growth of the life sciences cluster in the Midlands,” said Tommy Fanning, head of IDA’s PharmaBio division. “IDA’s clients have committed investments of more than $3 billion in Ireland over the last two years. This is another important investment for a regional location, and IDA looks forward to working with PPD to ensure continued success and development.”

In total, PPD’s operations in the Athlone Business and Technology Park amount to nearly 50,000 square feet, of which approximately 18,000 square feet is dedicated good manufacturing practices (GMP) laboratory space.