SAFC Pharma's St. Louis HPAPI Conjugates Facility Receives SafeBridge Cer...( ST. LOUIS June 1 /- SAFC Pharma (R)...),Health

ST. LOUIS, June 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SAFC Pharma(R) (www.safcpharma.com), a business segment of SAFC(R), a member of the Sigma-Aldrich(R) Group (Nasdaq: SIAL), today announced the certification of its highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredient (HPAPI) conjugation suite, by SafeBridge(R) Consultants, Inc. for the safe handling of potent drug substances. The suite, located on the company's St. Louis, Missouri campus was designed to support the entire drug development pipeline, from early-stage clinical supplies to kilogram quantities, and expandable to commercial-scale.

The 600 square ft HPAPI suite, commissioned in September 2008, enables the conjugation of Highly Potent Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (www.safcpharma.com/hpapi) to a variety of targeted delivery molecules known as antibody drug conjugates (ADCs).

"Gaining SafeBridge certification status for our HPAPI conjugation suite provides our customers with complete confidence in our ability to handle their potent compound projects safely and efficiently," commented David Feldker, SAFC Pharma Vice President. "This adds to our already significant experience in the production of HPAPIs, an area in which we continue to see rapid growth as targeted oncology evolves. The suite builds upon 15 years of HPAPI manufacturing experience at SAFC's Madison, Wisconsin site, which is also SafeBridge certified, and upon more than 30 years of experience in conjugation technology at the St. Louis facility."

The SafeBridge program assessment, recognized as the most widely accepted industry benchmark for handling highly potent pharmaceuticals, focuses on four primary areas: (1) management, (2) hazard identifica
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