Dublin based chemical development company Celtic Catalysts today announced the next phase of its ongoing expansion with the opening of its pilot-scale  process facility.  This facility, based in the former ICI production site in Redcar in the north-east of England will house the company’s large scale reactors and will enable the company to produce its range of products up to 250L scale.  Celtic Catalysts continues to house its R&D division in Dublin where it has access to state-of-the-art laboratories and analytical equipment.
Speaking about its newly opened UK facility, Celtic Catalysts chief executive Brian Kelly said: “This is another significant milestone in the development and expansion of Celtic Catalysts.  Our new production capabilities enable us to supply sizeable quantities of our own proprietary products and also means that we can now work with our contract R&D partners from milligram to tens of kilogram scale.”
Celtic Catalysts is a leading supplier of difficult to make chiral and non-chiral products to the Fine Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Biotech industries. Celtic Catalysts has developed a comprehensive portfolio of intellectual property and carved out uniquely strong niches for itself in the areas of asymmetric catalysis, phosphorus chemistry and process development.

Celtic Catalysts, the award winning NovaUCD-based life sciences company, has secured €500,000 in funding from existing investor, 4th Level Ventures and private investors.

Celtic Catalysts has carved out a uniquely strong niche for itself in the specialised area of ‘P-chiral’ technology which enables global pharmaceutical companies manufacture drugs, particularly those in anti-viral and anti-cancer therapeutic areas, more cost effectively.

Celtic Catalysts was co-founded in 2000 by Professor Declan Gilheany and Dr Brian Kelly as a spin-out from UCD’s School of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. The company currently employs 17 people and is headquartered in NovaUCD the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre at University College Dublin. Celtic Catalysts has now secured over €2.5 million in investment from 4th Level Ventures, Enterprise Ireland, Údarás na Gaeltachta and Business Expansion Scheme investors.

On securing this investment, Dr Brian Kelly, CEO, Celtic Catalysts said, “This investment will assist Celtic Catalysts in closing some very exciting near-term opportunities.” He added that “Due to further projected growth, the company will seek to raise additional capital to enable it to develop scale-up production facilities to manufacture bulk quantities of its products and to address additional high-value opportunities.”

Earlier this year Celtic Catalysts was presented with the NovaUCD 2008 Innovation Award in recognition of its successful commercialisation of chiral synthesis research which took place over many years at UCD. In addition it was the international winner of the ‘Rising Star Award’ at the BioIndustry Association (Scotland) Thistle Bioscience Forum 2008.

Ray Naughton, co-founder, 4th Level Ventures said, “Celtic Catalysts continues to perform to plan and this investment allows the company to achieve another critical milestone.”

Along with product sales, Celtic Catalysts has already signed several research alliance agreements with a number of multinational pharmaceutical companies. These research alliance agreements enable Celtic Catalysts utilise their expertise and technology to solve problems being encountered by pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the manufacture of their drugs.