The new API Material Handling & Packaging Room at Kingchem’s St. Francis Wisconsin (USA) GMP plant has been completed. While a state-of-the-art ISO 8 (Class 100,000) heating and ventilating system controls foreign particulate matter and guarantees environmental conditions, airlocks also provide for gowning, de-gowning, controlled access and appropriate equipment and material handling.
Electrically classified as Class 1 Division 2 Groups C&D to allow for the safe handling of flammable solvents, the room also features a walk-in hood, a spot ventilation arm, appropriate wall, ceiling, and floor finishes cleanable to pharmaceutical standards, as well as lighting levels appropriate to the processes carried out. With the airlocks, there is also separate single-direction flow of personnel from that of equipment and materials.
Designed to both protect the product and employees, the area is also flexible in its operations by use of portable equipment and donning PPE appropriate for the operation to be executed. Most activities will focus on final packaging, for example, sampling from bulk containers and sub-dividing to client-requested configurations, etc. Other operations will include the de-lumping of bulk materials utilizing sieving equipment.
The new half-million dollar construction project now also provides viewing windows to allow customers to see the space and observe processing of their materials without entering the handling area. The area also allows for additional technologies to be added in the future to the Wisconsin plant, for example, solids handling such as milling operations, or handling more potent compounds in the area.
For further information, contact Kingchem Life Science LLC.
Another major expansion to Kingchem’s Liaoning Life Science plant at Fuxin (Liaoning China) has been completed. The new 2200m2 (~23,680ft2) Technology Center covers four floors, has a combined staff of 60 employees, and houses the plant’s QC and QA labs, four R&D labs and two Kilo labs. Production management and related administrative areas are also housed in the building.
The new 2.5 million-dollar (USD) Technology Center expands the Fuxin plant’s analytical capabilities, such as elemental analysis of ICP-OES Agilent 5800, UPLC Agilent 1290, NMR analysis, and the different levels of scaled-up production capabilities. As well, it also features a reversed QC lab which will be used for GMP analysis.
For further information, contact Kingchem Life Science LLC.
A Message to the Employees of Kingchem Laboratories of Wisconsin and Kingchem Life Science of New Jersey.
By Lillian Wu, Chief Operating Officer.
Both Wisconsin and New Jersey have been hard hit by the pandemic and so this has been a very stressful time for all of us. Yet, as a supplier to the pharmaceutical industry, Kingchem is classified as an essential business so it must continue to function. And it has, thanks to the dedication and diligence of the employees of Kingchem. During this difficult year, each has made a valuable contribution to Kingchem, the economy and the community at large.
This has been an exceptionally unique time of real and difficult challenges presented by world around us to both ourselves and to our families. To cite just a few examples: some contend with the blurring of the line between personal and work lives by working remotely; some need to continue being onsite and to work safely to operate basic infrastructure; some have confronted family issues. Yet, in the face of it all, Kingchem employees have continued to provide our customers with outstanding service. In other words, you have supplied and continue to supply the resilience and commitment to help us keep getting through.
This is very humbling for me to reflect on.
So, to each and every member of Kingchem, I want to express my very sincerest and deepest gratitude for a job well done. I am proud of you. You have been and will continue to be the strength of this company. Thank you for your teamwork, consistent effort and commitment.
I send you my warmest wishes for a happy holiday season and the very best for the coming new year.
Very sincerely,
Lillian Wu
A second major expansion to Kingchem’s Dalian R&D facility has been completed. The renovation included expanding into brand new labs & offices, as well as improvements to existing labs & warehousing.
The new expansion includes:
- A new dedicated lab for pressure reaction with hydrogenation facility.
- A new dedicated lab for flow chemistry with fixed-bed reactor & micro-reactors.
- A new dedicated lab for safety evaluation to be used to expand the facilities’ use into new safety evaluation instruments & capabilities.
- Two new QC labs for NMR & chemical analysis.
- Two new synthesis labs.
- Expanded facilities for the storage of waste, gas, equipment, reagents & glasses.
With this new expansion to 35,000 ft2 (3,300m2) Kingchem will offer new capabilities for the development of flow reaction such as hydrogenation, lithiation, nitration, oxidation or halogenation in flow. The company will also be able to provide better development services around pressure reactions, safety evaluations & expanded NMR analysis capabilities.
For more information, contact Kingchem Life Science LLC.
Kingchem is pleased to announce that its Kingchem Liaoning Chemical Co. plant located in Fuxin, Liaoning has resumed production and was fully operational as of 15 September 2020. The now expired shutdown was put into effect after an incident occurred at a waste-water treatment plant serving the overall industrial park where Kingchem’s plant is located. The full resumption of operations was based on notice received from local authorities. Kingchem emphasized that the employees of the plant and the plant itself were always safe throughout the incident. As well, Kingchem’s employees continued to work with the industrial park to help resolve the park’s issues triggered by the incident. Kingchem also took the shutdown as an opportunity to conduct numerous plant EHS improvements and perform annual maintenance, all of which smoothly passed the local authority’s EHS inspection. The company is also evaluating strategic long- and short-term solutions available in order to minimize any possible risk of interruptions to production that might be caused by a third party.
Although the shutdown was triggered by the park wastewater treatment plant, Kingchem apologizes for the delay caused to each impacted customer and is fully committed to minimize any delays in product delivery.
Customers are asked to communicate with their corresponding business team member for product delivery schedule updates.
Kingchem Statement to Our Customers on the Coronavirus Outbreak
Kingchem Life Science LLC of New Jersey and Kingchem Liaoning Chemical Co., Ltd. of Fuxin, Liaoning Province, China have been monitoring the Coronavirus outbreak in China carefully. We are fortunate to be able to report that our manufacturing plant in Fuxin and our R&D center in Dalian are located far from the epicenter of the outbreak and have not been impacted. Our manufacturing plant has been open and operating this entire time, including during the New Year’s celebration period.
To minimize the risk of virus contamination, we decided to have our Shanghai employees and a number of our Dalian office employees safely work from home. Further, it should be noted that Kingchem has no operations in or near the Wuhan area of China, and no Kingchem employees have been subjected to the outbreak. In fact, Kingchem took the safe approach and stopped purchasing all raw materials from Hubei province as soon it was learned that the coronavirus outbreak had occurred in Wuhan.
Also upon the outbreak, the Kingchem Liaoning Chemical Co. quickly went ahead to form an anti-virus committee to enable us to put into place a business continuity response of monitoring the outbreak, looking for any potential impacts on daily plant operations, monitor suppliers for impacts, follow any required government regulations, ensure support of our employees with equipment such as the daily distribution of masks, etc. and to take a number of other actions to minimize the risk of virus contamination. As a consequence of all of the preceding, we are pleased to report that our operations and shipments continue as normal.
Finally, customers concerned about travel to China at this time may want to consider video, web or audio conferencing, and may rest assured that Kingchem will take any and all steps necessary to assist you in this way.
We appreciate the understanding and support from our customers during such a challenging time. We will continue do our best to manage our day to day activity and will keep you informed of any changes in the situation.
(We invite you to also review our other Newsroom item entitled “Kingchem & Social Responsibility in the Face of Adversity: The Coronavirus Outbreak” concerning the contributions of Kingchem and our American employees to the Fuxin branch of the Red Cross of China and local municipal government’s struggles against the virus in the face of local shortages of protective masks, gloves, goggles etc.)
For more information, contact: Kingchem Life Science LLC
News Release
Kingchem & Social Responsibility in the Face of Adversity – The Coronavirus Outbreak…
A Message from the CEO:
With the outbreak of the new coronavirus, the people of China found themselves in an unprecedented struggle during the recent Chinese New Year (Spring Festival). All employees of Kingchem would like to express their sincerest gratitude and respect to the medical workers struggling on the front line of the outbreak and, as well, to all others involved in the fight against the virus.
As a responsible global citizen and social enterprise, Kingchem has spared no effort to contribute to controlling the outbreak. For example, the hearts of our American Kingchem Life Science employees were touched as they saw the shortage of supplies in China growing alongside the epidemic. They quickly began organizing the donation of protective materials to the Fuxin branch of the Red Cross of China.
In spite of supplies such as medical masks and protective suits becoming very scarce on the American market, Bryan Rude of our Wisconsin plant, and Peter Jamieson and Ryann Rykowski of our New Jersey office worked very hard to find various types of medical protective equipment from suppliers far and wide. Disregarding high costs and other difficulties, they finally managed to find and purchase more than 500,000 RMB worth of protective supplies.
U.S. employees Guido DeMarco, Peter Jamieson, Ryann Rykowski, Ray Segura, Cathy Penetra, and Carmine Covino all actively contributed to packing pallets and preparing shipping documents. As a result, the first shipment of donations left our Allendale, New Jersey warehouse for China at 7 p.m. on February 5. And, after a prolonged second effort, a second shipment was finally dispatched to China late in the day, February 14.
Details of the first shipment included include:
- 50,000 pairs nitrile gloves
- 800 N95 masks
- 1,200 surgical mask
- 240 hooded protective suits
- 37,450 nuisance masks
While the second batch of donations included:
- 10,000 N95 masks
- 10,200 surgical masks
- 1,000 goggles
- 550 hooded protective suits
I want to express my appreciation and gratitude to everyone involved in the donation by Kingchem Life Science to the fight against the virus by the Fuxin Branch of the Red Cross of China.
Notably, Kingchem’s manufacturing and R&D facilities in China are far from the epicenter of the Coronavirus outbreak. However, Kingchem quickly set up a business-continuity anti-virus group for epidemic prevention and control, especially at our Kingchem Liaoning Chemical Co., located in the city of Fuxin (Liaoning province) China. The group’s ongoing mission is to organize and inspect our daily epidemic prevention-and-control work in order to ensure that production not only continues but also concurs with related government requirements and regulation during the epidemic.
It is commendable that our plant in Fuxin never shut down during Chinese New Year. Many of our personnel stuck to their work, while others returned to work early to help our company contend with the epidemic and ensure safe, ongoing production (to cite but one example, our manufacturing plant took the safe approach and stopped purchasing all raw materials from Hubei province as soon it was learned that the coronavirus outbreak had occurred in Wuhan). Other employees, unable to return to work, re-started work by email, teleconference and other means. We take this opportunity to express our very sincere thanks to both the management and the entire workforce of our manufacturing and R&D facilities for their efforts during the epidemic.
As we hope things begin to return to normal, I am reminded of the first words of the Kingchem company credo:
Kingchem is committed to serving the life science industry with passion, responsibility, integrity, and a loving heart. We carry out our work with energy, spirit, reliability, and quality standards. We commit to delivering high quality product to each of our customers around the world. Our mission is to improve the quality of life for all of humanity…
Our employees, in response to the epidemic, have proven the truth that lies behind our credo.
Signed,
Stephen Wang
Chairman and CEO
Kingchem
Carmine Covino, Vice President of Sales, Nutraceuticals has announced Kingchem Life Science’s 2020 Nutraceutical trade-show attendance schedule. Kingchem Life Science will be represented at the following Nutraceutical-focused shows in 2020:*
- Natural Products Expo West 2020. Anaheim, CA 3-7 March
- SupplySide East 2020. New York/Secaucus, NJ 21-22 April
- NY Soc. of Cosmetic Chemists Suppliers’ Day 2020. New York, NY. 5-6 May
- IFT Food Expo 2020. Chicago, IL 12-15 July
- Natural Products Expo East 2020. Philadelphia, PA 23-26 September
- SupplySide West 2020. Las Vegas, NV.27-30 October
Vice President Covino also said, “Trade shows are important not only for meeting colleagues and expanding one’s base of potential business partners, but also for exchanging ideas, gaining a fresh perspective on industry sectors and keeping up with trends. Anyone who has been in the industry for some time will also tell you that they can really help shorten the negotiating and purchasing process quite a bit”
To meet with Kingchem Life Science at any of the above shows, please contact Carmine Covino at email address: [email protected]
For further information, contact Kingchem Life Science LLC.
* For a full list of shows attended by Kingchem personnel of all divisions, see http://www.kingchem.com/trade-shows/)
Kingchem is very pleased to welcome Dr. Holger Bastian to the Kingchem family of companies. He joins our team as the Director of Sales of Kingchem Life Science of Allendale, New Jersey (USA). Dr. Bastian achieved his doctorate from the University of Bielefeld in Germany and has been serving the global life science and chemical industries for over twenty-five years. Through his sales, marketing and business management experience, he brings to Kingchem extensive commercial and project management expertise, as well as a thorough business knowledge of the European region. His recent service at Rohner AG and AllessaChemie also provides him a thorough understanding of customer requirements in the pharmaceutical, fine chemical and agrochemical industries. This high level of experience and expertise — along with his convenient location in the heart of Europe – allows him to function as a very valuable asset to customers. Dr. Bastian is currently based in the Frankfurt area of Germany.
For more information, contact Kingchem Life Science LLC.
With its new North American company, Kingchem Laboratories Inc. (St. Francis, Wisconsin) Kingchem’s capabilities now include full cGMP production for pharmaceutical intermediates as well as APIs. The additional new manufacturing facility — Kingchem’s first in the US — offers an experienced team in North America that can engage at every phase of drug development, from pre-clinical through commercialization. The production assets at Kingchem Laboratories range from pilot plant to full commercial scale and include a variety of materials of construction including glass-lined, stainless steel, and Hastelloy.
“Kingchem is proud to leverage our strengths in China for back-integration, and also to extend our commitment to raise the bar in EHS and quality with our new GMP facility in the USA,” said Kingchem CEO Stephen Wang, who also announced the 2019 celebration of Kingchem 25th year in business.
The new facility, licensed for GMP manufacturing of Pharmaceuticals, has an experienced staff bringing 10-30 years in GMP manufacturing experience ranging from CDMO to Large Pharma. With a current footprint of 50,000 sq. ft., the facility will focus on the API, excipient and GMP intermediates product categories.
According to Ryan Yoder, Kingchem’s Vice President for Business Development, “In 2002, we acquired a plant in Fuxin, China, that today manufactures chemicals for several industries, including pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, electronic chemicals and specialty chemicals. However, this new acquisition in Wisconsin (USA) gives us GMP-manufacturing capabilities based in the U.S., which enables us to provide a full spectrum of products & services welcomed by many of our customers. Where China is producing RSMs, our new facility in Wisconsin is focusing more downstream on GMP intermediates and APIs.”
Dr. Yoder continued, “Our chemical supply for pharmaceuticals has grown significantly as we have continued to improve our quality systems. Subsequently, we have become a major player for registered starting materials (RSMs) in China. Moreover, stringent new environmental regulations in China and our investments there in quality and EHS over the years has made us a sustainable partner of choice in light of the closure of so many plants recently in China. The foresight and timing of these investments has left us in a very, very strong position. Our new North American plant only builds upon that strength. So, our 25th anniversary is bringing us movement and progress on many fronts, across two continents.”
For more information, contact Kingchem Life Science LLC.
For further information concerning the facility, also see: https://www.kingchem.com/about/facilities/kingchem-laboratories-inc/