NJII and Rutgers University Announce Plans to Form the New Jersey Continuous Manufacturing Institute

On Oct 27, 2017

The New Jersey Innovation Institute, an NJIT Corporation, and Rutgers University announce plans to form the New Jersey Continuous Manufacturing Institute (NJCMI) to advance innovative manufacturing technologies in the pharmaceutical industry.

The NJCMI serves as a center of excellence combining state-of-the-art technologies, infrastructure, facilities and technical expertise to support the development and continuous manufacturing of products for the pharmaceutical industry. In addition, it provides training, education and workforce development solutions for those who want to expand or gain additional training and expertise in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

In making the announcement, Dr. Donald H. Sebastian, president of NJII said, “This partnership with Rutgers builds on over a decade of leading edge R&D, and deep faculty expertise that NJCMI can leverage to make available pilot-scale technologies that meet pharmaceutical industry demands for higher production volume, greater efficiency and reduced cost.  I expect the center will be a strong magnet attracting all the links of the pharmaceutical value chain to make New Jersey a place of business.”

The NJCMI facility features Process Development Pilot Plants for both solid dosage forms and biologics, as well as cGMP suites for production. In addition, it provides individual Unit Operations labs for process optimization and control, modeling and automation. It also offers designated classrooms and training labs for collaborative learning experiences and workforce development.

Dr. Christopher J. Molloy, senior vice president, Rutgers office of research & economic development stated, “NJCMI brings together a complete range of expertise and knowledge to develop innovative biopharmaceutical processing technologies. Our team is led by a core of professionals with more than 100 years of combined experience in biopharmaceutical manufacturing process development, biochemical and chemical engineering. Together, Rutgers and NJII, through the NJCMI, are meeting the challenges for cost effective approaches to the continuous production of both new and existing classes of pharmaceuticals.”

Dr. Fernando Muzzio, director of C-SOPS and of NJCMI, remarked that “Continuous manufacturing is an exponentially growing trend leading the modernization of pharmaceutical manufacturing. For large research-based companies, the main need is to develop consensus best practices supported by regulators worldwide. Generic companies, contract manufacturers, and smaller pharmaceutical companies need access to development facilities equipped with all the necessary knowledge regarding product and process development. NJCMI will meet this need, enabling dozens of new players to enter this exciting market.

NJII’s Executive Director, Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Innovation, Dr. Haro  Hartounian added, “NJCMI is working closely with our biotechnology partner companies and applying our many years of experience in biologics manufacturing to implement continuous processing innovations. This enables biotechnology companies to produce high-quality products with a smaller production footprint and shorter lead times.”

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