Enavail moving forward with manufacturing plan in Abilene
October 19, 2011
Drugmaker's president tells about specialty
By Jaime Adame
About 16 months after announcing plans to begin making drugs in Abilene, specialty pharmaceutical company Enavail has yet to start manufacturing operations.
But the startup company, the second tenant in the Abilene Life Sciences Accelerator, has begun touting its technology and could start its business soon, said company President Brian Windsor.
"We could start doing manufacturing before the end of the year," Windsor said. "I don't know to what scale we would do that. A lot of that, as you probably know, depends on our clients and what the clients request."
The company doesn't have a full-time employee based in Abilene, Windsor said, but work has moved forward in developing a clean room necessary for the company's manufacturing processes.
He explained the company's niche in an industry where many companies can make drugs that can easily be digested and broken down by the body.
"Where we have an advantage is in drugs that are problematic to formulate," Windsor said.
With some drugs, it's like "trying to get sand to dissolve into a glass of water," he said.
We take those kinds of drugs and use one of our manufacturing technologies so that it will go into the body and be absorbed and be effective," Windsor said.
In a news release this week, Enavail described plans to use hot-melt extrusion technology.
"Enavail's goal is to provide our clients with the most cost-effective and time-saving processes that solve their formulation and delivery needs," Windsor said in a statement. "HME expands our capabilities to develop innovative formulation solutions, particularly for poorly soluble drugs."
In an interview, Windsor said the hot-melt extrusion technology, originally developed in the plastics industry, allows for creation of drug pellets, rods and films.
The company also specializes in proprietary particle engineering technology and has an Austin research lab.
Enavail is a part of Austin-based Emergent Technologies, which also oversees management of the Abilene Life Sciences Accelerator.
The Development Corp. of Abilene, which allocates the city's half-cent sales tax, has approved spending as much as $1.02 million in financial assistance for Enavail, mainly to pay for lab equipment and improvements to the 1,800- square-foot space to be used by the company. The Development Corp. of Abilene expects to be paid $505,680 over a seven-year lease.
"What we're working on right now is completing their clean room, which should be finished by the end of the month, at which time they'll be free to start the process of putting in their equipment and establishing their policies and procedures," said Richard Burdine, chief executive for the Development Corp. of Abilene.
The news release also noted Enavail will be exhibiting at the annual meeting of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists next week in Washington, D.C. Windsor described it as an opportunity for the company to get new clients.
"I think putting this kind of technology in Abilene, what it does is it locks companies into using Enavail not only for initial development work," Windsor said. "If it's successful, now we are their go-to manufacturer."
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