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Highlights
- Clever Culture Systems wins $3.1M AstraZeneca order for four APAS instruments.
- Enhances environmental monitoring at global manufacturing sites.
- Total commitment reaches nine instruments, worth up to $7.2M.
Clever Culture Systems, previously known as LBT Innovations, has secured a second major order from pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca for its APAS Independence instruments. This marks a significant step in the company’s continued expansion in the pharmaceutical environmental monitoring market. The order includes four additional APAS Independence instruments, which are valued at approximately $3.1 million over seven years, including maintenance and support fees.
This new order increases AstraZeneca’s total commitments to nine APAS instruments, collectively valued at up to $7.2 million. It also reflects the growing confidence in the APAS technology for standardizing environmental monitoring processes across AstraZeneca’s global sterile drug manufacturing locations. These instruments play a critical role in ensuring the sterility and quality of pharmaceutical products by automating environmental monitoring, a key aspect of pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Clever Culture Systems CEO and Managing Director, Brent Barnes, highlighted the importance of this order, noting that it will help expand the standardization of APAS across AstraZeneca’s manufacturing sites. “This additional order of four APAS instruments allows expanded standardisation of APAS to additional AstraZeneca global sterile drug manufacturing locations,” said Barnes. The instruments are expected to be delivered and installed in the first half of 2025, further solidifying the partnership between the two companies.
In addition to the new order, Clever Culture Systems also announced an enhancement to its APAS Independence platform. In August, the company launched a new development project that introduced contact plate functionality to the APAS instruments. This enhancement allows the instruments to process both the larger 90mm settle plates and the smaller 55mm contact plates used in environmental monitoring. With the addition of this new analysis module, customers can now process a wider variety of environmental monitoring plates, making the APAS Independence instruments even more versatile and efficient.
Karen Capper, head of Microbiology, Science & Technology at AstraZeneca Pharmaceutical Technology and Development, emphasized the significance of the new capabilities. "The addition of the contact plate application is an important addition to the APAS portfolio that increases the usefulness of the system for our laboratories globally," she said. This enhancement was a key factor in AstraZeneca’s decision to extend the global rollout of the APAS technology across its manufacturing network.
As both companies continue to work closely together, this expanded partnership reflects the growing adoption of innovative technologies in pharmaceutical manufacturing, particularly in the field of environmental monitoring.
