Neuland Laboratories, a global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) specialising in complex APIs –will open a dedicated process development laboratory and integrated kilo lab at its Genome Valley campus in Hyderabad. 

The new 135,000 sq. ft. facility will see $20m invested in a specialist fit-out and be operationalised in phases, with full completion expected by October 2026.

Significantly, it has been designed as a purpose-built integrated scale-up laboratory dedicated exclusively to process development. Once completed, the site will take Neuland’s process development team to more than 500 scientists, making it one of the largest scale-up workforce in India.

Unlike many CDMOs, where process development laboratories may also support discovery or other mixed-use workstreams, the new facility has been designed exclusively for process development.

It will also integrate non-GMP kilo labs, allowing scientists to evaluate process performance at larger scales without transferring work to separate sites or competing for access to GMP capacity. This enables teams to continue process optimisation while generating real-time scale-up data in parallel.

The centre will incorporate AI-driven route scouting, parallel synthesis, and Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELNs), enabling faster decision-making, reduced cycle times, and seamless data continuity.

A centralised analytical wing will house a comprehensive suite of characterisation technologies, with the facility also including specialised zones for process engineering, polymorph studies, process safety, and advanced flow chemistry, alongside five peptide labs and three purification labs.

Saharsh Davuluri, Vice Chairman and MD at Neuland Labs said, “The new facility is particularly notable for a few reasons. Firstly, we are using a pre-existing building, so the full $20m investment is being directed towards fitting out the facility rather than constructing the shell.”

“Alongside this, the facility has also been set up with equipment that simulates large-scale reactions at small scale. The end goal is to give clients parallel development and earlier manufacturability insight from the outset,” he added.

The Kilo Lab will be equipped with 20–250L all‑glass reactors, cryogenic capability, and multiple filtration systems. By bridging bench chemistry and plant operations, the Kilo Lab ensures processes are engineered with manufacturability in mind from the outset.