10 years of successfully delivering quality data and stellar customer service at EBPT Portage
by Nathan Whitford, Site Director, Eurofins BioPharma Product Testing, Portage, MI
This year the Eurofins BioPharma Product Testing Lab in Portage, MI, celebrates 10 years of operational success as part of Eurofins Lancaster Laboratories. It is exciting to look back over the past 10 years to see where the Portage site was then as well as strategize future growth expectations moving forward.
In 2012, the acquired site had approximately 20 employees working in a 40,000 ft2 laboratory that was underutilized but held great potential. The services provided looked different with a significant amount of medicated animal feed testing and limited small molecule pharmaceutical analyses. Having so much unused laboratory space allowed for seemingly endless growth potential, but to fuel that growth a strong focus on people and quality had to be the start. Harmonization efforts with the Lancaster team to align LIMS and quality systems began immediately along with hiring and developing management, analytical, and support staff with a focus toward delivering quality results clients were used to getting in Lancaster. Spending nearly 10 years in Lancaster in the Method Development & Validation Department as a Principal Group Leader, I was well prepared to bring the same level of service to Portage and exceed expectations.
With the quality metrics and people development underway, growth strategies could transition to further investments in technology and facilities. Through that process, the Portage site was able to transition testing to become a center of excellence for small molecule finished product pharmaceutical analyses in chemistry, non-sterile microbiology, and stability support. Over the past 10 years, the team has grown to over 100 employees, which has allowed us to further fill the lab space while evaluating opportunities to expand services and continue to deliver quality data to each of our clients.
As we look forward to the next decade and beyond, we are excited for what will be coming as we continue to add more services and lab space. With the new services, our focus remains on adding value to our customers to meet their needs while complementing technologies already in place at the site. A new raw materials laboratory building addition is currently underway to add to our chemistry services and allow for a second US based Eurofins site in the organization that can help support client testing needs in this critical area (Lancaster & Portage sites collaborate to bring new raw materials testing services to the MI facility).
In addition to the raw materials business, the Portage site continues to invest in microbiology services to improve our service offerings to our clients. In 2021, we have added capabilities through collaboration with our team in Lancaster to support AET, disinfectant efficacy studies, and microbial challenge hold studies, each with successful projects performed on site. We are also extremely excited to collaborate with the Lancaster site to add endotoxin, microbial identification with gene sequencing, and sterility microbiology services coming in 2022. The high demand for sterility testing is notable, and the Portage site is adding a Bioquell Qube isolator to meet this testing demand. For more information on this visit: www.eurofins.com/bpt/newsletters/spring-2021/new-sterility-isolator/
Finally, as we continue to fill laboratory space, the site has started plans for a future building expansion to meet the ongoing growth expectations and allow for investment in our people, facilities, and instrumentation. In reflecting upon this growth over the past decade and into the next one, a note of thanks goes out to our clients who continue to trust us with their testing needs. Our staff continues to remain humbled that we are trusted with delivering analytical results to help contribute to a safer and healthier world by partnering with each one of our customers.