North Carolina pharmaceutical company Alcami Corporation has doubled its stability storage capability in Wilmington.

The contract development and manufacturing organization announced on Monday the expansion of its Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) Stability Storage space in the Wilmington facility at 1519 N. 23rd St. The expansion adds about 2,200 cubic feet of stability storage space with the capacity for 6,000 more cubic feet of space if needed, said Katie Schlipp, a University of North Carolina Wilmington alumna and Alcami’s president of laboratory operations.

Phase I of the project is complete, and Alcami is in the process of getting a quote to complete the second phase, Schlipp said. The storage space is separated into chambers, with Phase I bringing the complete number of chambers to 38, each with separate temperature and humidity settings, among other customizations.

Alcami’s complete stability storage capability is now 30,000 cubic feet across its facilities in Wilmington, Garner, St. Louis, and New England, according to its news release.

GMP Stability Storage is needed for virtually any drug on the market. The process stores the product to determine the expiration date, or how long the drug can sit undisturbed until it is no longer viable for safe use, Schlipp said. The process sometimes also involves studying the product to ensure it is still viable throughout its supposed shelf-life.

“It just gives you an indication and demonstration through data and evidence through data that your product is viable and that it will remain effective and safe for patients to take,” she said.

The Raleigh-based company has a large lab operation in Wilmington, with other facilities down the East Coast. It recently entered the western market with an acquisition in Nevada. Alcami was founded in Wilmington and continues to develop and test various drugs in its Port City facilities.

Stability storage is one of the several services Alcami provides in its lab services arm. The other two arms of the business are manufacturing and storage, which it has expanded in its Garner facility and in Nevada. This storage allows pharmaceutical brands to ship their drug to an Alcami location to use as a warehouse with the capability to store the product under specific conditions like temperature and humidity.

“Space is a commodity,” Schlipp said. “Sometimes we're dealing with materials that this is all (the pharmaceutical companies) have, and they need someone to really protect it.”