As some drugs run scarce in hospitals hit by COVID-19, the FDA has tapped outsourcing firms to fill the gap. Now, one compounding pharmacy is plotting expansions at two of its production plants to boost capacity for key meds.
Little Rock, Arkansas-based SCA Pharma will double up on upgrades with one at its Windsor, Connecticut, manufacturing site and another at a plant at its home city's airport.
SCA kicked off its expansion spree with plans to build out a second clean room at its Windsor site, growing the space to 150,000 square feet over roughly nine months. The manufacturing expansion will pave the way for increased automation and new technical staffers to shore up supplies of critical medicines, SCA said in a release.
Less than a week later, SCA said it would pump $10 million more into its sterile injectables facility at the Clinton International Airport through a partnership with the Arkansas Economic Development Commission (AEDC) and the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission. The compounder aims to build a new manufacturing plant adjacent to its existing airport facility—also teed up for renovations—and said the expansion will double its 180-strong Little Rock workforce.
The expansion comes after a half-decade of sustained growth positioning SCA Pharma as a key outsourcer of compounded drugs. Now, more than ever, the company aims to make sure it can meet increased demand from doctors and patients.
“Ensuring that hospitals have all of the readily available sterile injectable pharmaceuticals they need to properly treat and care for patients is more critical today than ever before,” CEO Milton Boyer said. "Our new construction will position us to expand our capacity and make products even more accessible to hospitals.”
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Compounding pharmacies have won the tenuous support of their old stumbling block, the FDA, during the COVID-19 pandemic. In late April, the agency relaxed its regulatory muscle, temporarily permitting hospitals to source scarce drugs from compounding pharmacies to treat certain patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19.
That same month, the Drug Enforcement Administration said it would allow increased manufacturing of controlled substances in low supply. Included in the range of painkillers and sedatives DEA put on its production increase list was fentanyl, used in large 50-milligram doses to treat ventilated patients.
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Other pharmaceutical outsourcers have already soared on the strength of the pandemic tailwind. In July, generics maker Nephron announced plans for a $215.8 million upgrade to vaccine fill-finish capacity and warehousing space at its South Carolina site, fueled by a boom in its generic inhalation and suspension products. The company has been in talks with two "large pharmas" to lock down space at the vaccine facility, which could come online as soon as the first quarter of 2021.