Love Lifesciences testing its robotic fill system with KC pharma company to boost UNIPEN access

Collaboration not only fuels innovative ideas, said Bradley Hopper, it can help validate and advance Kansas City-built tech — a critical need for Love Lifesciences as new products push closer to market. 

The Kansas-based life sciences company on Friday announced a partnership with Excite Pharma Services in Lee’s Summit through which the two companies plan to jointly test the readiness of Love Lifesciences’ robotic syringe fill-finish system.

Love Lifesciences’ UNIPEN injection safety device; courtesy image

Once validated, the automated, single-technician operated system will be capable of producing more than 10,000 prefilled syringes per day for use with Love Lifesciences’ UNIPEN injection safety devices.

The advancement would not only increase access to injectables with UNIPEN, but will substantially reduce the cost of injectables delivered with UNIPEN, explained Hopper, CTO and co-founder of Love Lifesciences alongside CEO Nick Love. 

“Our engineers have put years of hard work into every stage of our manufacturing here in Kansas, from the earliest prototypes to a platform now capable of high-volume output with minimal technician effort,” he said, noting a previous collaboration with Wichita-based automation integrator Mark Cleveland of CleveCo to reach the milestone. “Doing that work close to home has always mattered to us. Partnering with Excite gives us the chance to prove out these efforts in a real production setting, and we’re excited about what it means for the growth of UNIPEN and the life sciences footprint in this region.” 

Together, Love Lifesciences and Excite — which provides prescription drug product manufacturing services — plan to conduct installation, operational, and performance qualification, along with cleaning validation and media fill studies, to confirm the system’s readiness for high-volume aseptic production, Hopper said.

The companies also will team up for joint marketing of the system and UNIPEN for implementation into pharmaceutical and 503B injectable products.

“Evaluating a new automated platform like this is a significant undertaking, and one we are excited to do alongside another Kansas City-region partner,” said Keith Koehler, president of Excite. “The system and the UNIPEN Injection Platform both come with substantial benefits to Excite’s business, including adding flexible production volume capacities for prefilled injectables and even a novel, patented device platform.”

“We really see this opportunity as a key driver for our business development,” he added.