UPM Pharmaceuticals Celebrates Commitment to Quality on 100-Year Anniversary of its Bristol Manufacturing Site

In March 1917, S.E. Massengill purchased the site and transformed it into a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility. According to historical records, the Massengill brothers purchased their first piece of manufacturing equipment, a $25.00 hand-operated tablet machine and began the legacy. Old photographs show a nostalgic view of the building painted "Laboratory - The S.E. Massengill Company - Manufacturing Pharmacist". In 1971 the site became home to Beecham Laboratories North American Headquarters. King Pharmaceuticals acquired the site in 1993.  The site was sold to Pfizer in 2011, and in July of 2013 UPM Pharmaceuticals purchased the facility from Pfizer.

It is a true rarity in the pharmaceutical industry that significant modern production would occur at one site for 100 years. During that time, operations have expanded from a small facility footprint of less than 10,000 square feet and only two small buildings, to a modern campus of over 475,000 square feet and additional warehouse and distribution space of almost 250,000 square feet.  James E. Gregory, CEO of UPM said, "We are proud of the legacy of the Bristol, Tennessee site in the history of the pharmaceutical industry. The success of the products and the growth of the capabilities of the site stand as testimony to the many outstanding employees who have worked here over the past century."

UPM Pharmaceuticals, Inc. originated as a drug formulation and cGMP laboratory within the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, a recognized leader in industrial pharmaceutical innovation and education. Today UPM offers a full breadth of capabilities from early research and development to clinical trial material manufacturing and commercial scale product supply.  It is also DEA approved to handle CII-CV manufacturing.  The Bristol site has several low humidity manufacturing suites and the ability to handle potent compounds in dedicated suites.

James E. Gregory commented, "We remain vigilant in our commitment to our history, our entrepreneurial passion, family values and a strong quality and compliance culture. Our last FDA audit was in October of 2016.  It was a general GMP inspection of all systems and a preapproval inspection of a product that our R&D team developed. No 483's were issued and approval of the site to manufacture the product was recommended. Obviously, we were quite proud of this result. We also have yearly DEA Inspections given our capabilities to handle controlled substance products and have had no notice of violations or 'for cause' investigations. UPM is fully committed to quality and manufacturing innovations to assure the timely supply of needed medicines."

A new, proactive approach to quality was adopted at UPM in 2016 that is client-focused and includes implementation of manufacturing quality assurance (MQA), the use of metrics to evaluate performance and realignment of its laboratory functions to increase both efficiency and responsiveness. Together these changes add up to the accelerated delivery of high-quality products. UPM has hired additional quality experts to ensure that this new approach is successful, and added quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) staff.

About UPM Pharmaceuticals

UPM Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is an independent drug development and contract manufacturer serving the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. We provide high quality drug development services including custom formulation development, cGMP clinical and commercial manufacturing, analytical methods services, and stability testing. UPM's clients enjoy service that is customized and fast with total quality management characteristics of a customer focused business. Our history includes successful collaborative interactions with small virtual and large billion dollar companies providing customized product development services and solutions. UPM focuses on drug development for dosages with oral routes of administration, in solid dosage forms such as capsules and tablets, and semi-solid creams and ointments. Our 475,000 square foot commercial manufacturing facility based in Bristol, Tennessee allows us to serve our clients' needs from early stage development to large scale commercial production.

For more information:   
Mary Lee Schiesz  
Manager of Marketing  
Email: [email protected]  
Phone: +1 (423) 989-7057

SOURCE UPM Pharmaceuticals