Durham Reporter

A Durham County health care company may be one of the many North Carolina health-focused companies that will play a role in efforts to defeat COVID-19. 

That is the assessment from the Durham County Chamber of Commerce, which published a brief profile of Cambrex on July 9 in its news blog. 

Cambrex is one of the more than 300 biotech companies with operations in Durham County, which is considered one of the nation's leading hubs for the industry sector. 

Cambrex may not be at the forefront for the development of COVID-19 treatments, but the company's work "impacts our everyday lives, as a leading contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) that provides products and services to the pharmaceutical industry," the Durham Chamber of Commerce said in the post. "So, there’s a chance that Cambrex may have had a role in delivering the prescription medicine that you or someone you know may rely on to improve or maintain quality of life."

The biotech pharma company is headquartered in East Rutherford, New Jersey and has operations in Durham and High Point. The company told the Durham Chamber that it plans to expand its Durham site. The plan is to include more analytical creation and cGMP testing capability. 

"As [a] leading provider of contract development and analytical services, the recent biopharmaceutical expansion at our Durham facility enables our team of experts to now offer development and cGMP testing services to support a range of biological drugs," Daniel Kirschner, senior director at Cambrex Durham told the chamber. "Our comprehensive expertise, coupled with a transparent, safety-driven approach to implementing the new equipment, allow the Cambrex team to better serve customers across the lifecycle of their drug’s development."

The company’s facility in Durham has 130 workers. The company’s total workforce in North America and Europe is 2,100, the chamber said.