According to Vincent Santa Maria, president of Bilcare GCS, Americas, theaddition of new technology -- which includes state-of-the-art fluid bedgranulation and enhanced capsule-filling equipment -- is part of thecompany's capital investment program in its U.S. facilities. "With theseupgrades, Bilcare GCS can now quickly produce a wider variety of drugdosage forms with high product quality at or above industry standards," hesaid. "These investments in R&D services further prove our commitment tobeing a full-service partner to our global customers."

Praful Naik, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Bilcare Limited, said,"These enhancements complement the increasing number of investigational newdrug (IND) applications submitted by innovator pharma and biotechcompanies, which in turn requires multi-pronged expertise in formulationand analytical research and development."

The fluid bed granulation technology extends Bilcare's solid-dosageformulation capabilities. Equipped with Wurster coating inserts, thesystem enables Bilcare to deliver specialized, high-precision coatingprocesses for granules and non-pareils for the creation of top-qualitysustained- and controlled-release tablet and capsule formulations.

The In-Cap® capsule system, capable of filling several thousand capsulesper hour in multiple permutations, is a versatile tool for pre-clinical andearly-stage development. This equipment extends both development andclinical manufacturing capabilities for a myriad of formulation typesincluding powders, pellets, tablets and liquids.

"Bilcare's R&D center can now develop a broad array of dosage forms withinnovative delivery mechanisms that exceed those developed bypharmaceutical companies," says Frank Santillo, Ph.D., Bilcare GCS' seniordirector for research services. "Most importantly, we now have theexpertise to take a drug candidate from concept to clinical productionwithout the client suffering critical and costly delays as a result ofhand-offs."

About Bilcare Global Clinical Supplies

Bilcare Global Clinical Supplies serves the Americas, Europe, and Asia withclinical trial materials support, services, and complete projectmanagement. Its services for solid, semi-solid, liquid, DEA (CI-V), andbiotech clinical trial materials (CTM) satisfy a broad range ofrequirements, from pre-formulation research and development, manufacturing,analytical services and clinical supplies packaging and labeling, to IVRS,QP services, controlled temperature (cold chain) CTM storage, worldwidedistribution, and returns and destructions accountability.

For more information about Bilcare Global Clinical Supplies, visitwww.BilcareGCS.com.

In-Cap is a registered trademark of Dott. Bonapace & C. s.r.l.