Just thirty-six months after moving into new premises in Livingston, Encap Drug Delivery has now completed a further expansion of its development and manufacturing facility, in partnership with Thermal Transfer.

The expansion has been driven by the increasing need for pharmaceutical companies to use Encap's expertise in their speciality area of liquid filled capsules.

Speaking at the opening Nicola Sturgeon said:

"I welcome this significant new stage in the company's growth, which I understand is a ‘first' in Scottish facilities for full-scale manufacturing of oral cytotoxic products.
Pharma-related business contributes £1.38 billion to the gross output of the Scottish economy, adds £578 million to gross value and creates and safeguards over 12,000 jobs. In addition, it invests over £40 million in plant and equipment and is a key element in our drive to achieve increased sustainable economic growth."

Nicola Sturgeon with Stephen Brown from Encap

Liquid-fill based formulations are one of the fastest growing sectors of the drug delivery market, increasing at a rate of 30% per annum. This is due to the number of highly potent chemical and biological-based drugs moving through development pipelines today, particularly for oral anti-cancer treatments, which are suited to this technology. These drugs are the subject of rigorous regulatory control and their manufacture requires large investment. Completion of this £3million expansion will enable Encap to offer clients both development and commercial scale manufacturing of these products. The expansion will result in the total number of staff increasing to fifty employees.

Encap was established in Livingston, West Lothian in 1989 and has become an acknowledged world leader in the pharmaceutical development and manufacture of liquid filled capsules. The company already has a major success story in being the manufacturing site for many commercial products that it produces for pharmaceutical companies around the world.