BDD Opens GMP Manufacturing Facility in Scotland
Development of the state-of-the-art facility was made possible by a £2 million (US$2.6 million) round of funding, and a successful inspection by MHRA was completed in March 2025.
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The contract research organization (CRO) BDD Pharma (BDD) has opened a new, 122-square-meter (1313-square-foot) good manufacturing practice (GMP) manufacturing facility at BioCity near Glasgow, United Kingdom, BDD announced on April 8, 2025 (1).
Development of the state-of-the-art facility began in 2023, according to BDD, and was facilitated by a £2 million (US$2.6 million) round of funding from multiple investors, led by the angel investment syndicate Archangels along with Scottish Enterprise—BDD is a Scotland-based company—and British Business Bank, the latter of which had not been a pre-existing investor in BDD (1).
“The investment in the new facility strengthens BDD’s ability to offer end-to-end services to meet the growing market demand and dovetails the company’s clinical expansion,” Sarah Hardy, director and head of New Investments at Archangels, said in a BDD press release (1). “BDD uniquely supports pharmaceutical companies of any size that need to act quickly or accelerate plans enabling them to navigate the complex path of getting new therapies to patients.”
The facility was constructed by Guardtech Group, which specializes in cleanrooms, and according to the press release, will significantly expand BDD’s manufacturing and clinical testing capabilities (1). BDD said it adopts a lean clinical development approach in which clinical readouts are produced rapidly while quality is maintained from project to project. This helps the company to support R&D for small- to medium-sized pharmaceutical companies, specifically in the knowledge of how dosage forms work within the human body.
BDD reported that the new facility underwent a successful inspection by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in March 2025.
“This new additional facility provides a wonderful opportunity to generate even quicker reliable data on the safety and effectiveness of these newly developed medicines,” Stephen Clarke, head of Quality at BDD, said in the company press release. “That in turn will lead to new medicines getting into patients quicker and so improve patient health sooner, which benefits all of society. The outcome of the recent UK government inspection provided a high level of independent confidence that we are doing all the correct things, in the correct way, consistently.”
Across the Atlantic, Novartis announced an expansion of its manufacturing and R&D presence in the United States on April 10, with an investment of $23 billion during the next five years (2). The company will build seven new facilities, bringing production of 100% of its key products to the US, and will also create a new research hub in San Diego to increase R&D activities. Three current sites will be invested in with approximately 1000 new jobs being created, with an additional 4000 new jobs in the US overall. Production capacity will be increased for APIs, biologics, and secondary production and packaging.
References
1. BDD. BDD Pharma Opens Brand-New GMP Manufacturing Facility Following £2m in Funding. Press Release. April 8, 2025.
2. Novartis. Novartis Plans to Expand its US-Based Manufacturing and R&D Footprint with a Total Investment of $23B Over the Next 5 Years. Press Release. April 10, 2025.
