This year marks 80 years of Copley Scientific. In an industry where confidence in results is critical, experience matters. So, what have we learned, and what does that mean for customers?
In summary, 80 years of experience have given us a clear understanding of what effective pharmaceutical testing demands, even as requirements become more complex. This extends beyond well-designed products to how we support customers in delivering reliable, meaningful results. We understand that customers also need expert support, intuitive software and efficient interconnectivity to navigate an evolving industry and regulatory landscape with confidence.
Like the oak, the symbol of 80-year milestones, our strength comes from deep roots and steady growth. As we enter our 90th decade of Helping Scientists Improve People’s Lives, we’re clear that:
- Reliability is as important as speed in pharmaceutical testing (because data integrity is the cornerstone of product safety and efficacy).
- Good design is the foundation of reproducibility.
- Support from experts with in-depth knowledge matters as much as hardware.
- Anticipating the next customer challenge is vital, because pharmaceutical testing is always evolving.
Read on to find out how these principles shape how we operate and what they mean for our customers.
A family company: clear vision, enduring stability
Copley is a third-generation, family-owned company. Founded by Frank Copley to support the local pharmaceutical industry in Nottingham, this clear focus established a commitment to expert, reliable service that continues today.
Frank Copley at work in 1964. His focus on practical problem-solving continues to shape the business today.
For customers, long-term family ownership brings important benefits. It supports consistency in quality and service, clear accountability, and a stable foundation for long-term growth aligned with customer needs.
In-depth customer knowledge and long-standing relationships built on trust are central to how we operate.
For customers, Copley family ownership has ensured:
- Consistently high quality and service, with each generation building on the achievements of the last.
- Clear accountability and responsiveness, with short communication lines and products that bear the Copley name reinforcing our responsibility for what we deliver.
- Stability, with investment and growth aligned to long-term goals rather than short-term pressures.
- Flexibility and agility with leadership closely involved with day-to-day operations, driving delivery to exacting standards and timescales.
These attributes are particularly valuable in a highly regulated industry with demanding quality and safety requirements. They also support the development of a strong team and reliable supplier network.
An exceptional team: unrivalled expertise, exemplary service
The quality of our team is central to how we support customers. Over 80 years we have built deep expertise in pharmaceutical testing, developing a strong understanding of the practical challenges of pharmaceutical testing and how best to respond to them.
Many colleagues have been with Copley for years, some for decades, developing deep technical knowledge and long-standing relationships with customers. At the same time, we continue to bring in new expertise from across the industry, helping to drive fresh thinking and innovation.
For customers, this means:
- Working with experienced, industry-fluent people who understand the challenges and requirements of pharmaceutical testing.
- Long-term relationships with teams who know your systems, processes and requirements.
- Practical support from experts who can help improve efficiency, data integrity and compliance in day-to-day testing.
Our supplier network reflects the same approach, built on long-term, trusted relationships that support reliable delivery and consistent quality.
A recent award for excellence in customer service, reflecting the strength of our team and our commitment to supporting customers.
Company culture matters because it defines our ability to attract and retain the right people and directly impacts the customer experience. Our Investors in People Gold accreditation, awarded at first assessment, reflects the strength of that culture and our commitment to developing and supporting the people that make Copley.
This combination of experience, continuity, and investment in our people is fundamental to delivering the level of support our customers rely on.
Innovative, Trusted, Compliant
Innovative, Trusted, Compliant is the Copley promise. It defines the standards we apply to every product and service we deliver and reflects how we design, realise and support our solutions.
Innovative:
Throughout our history, finding new and better ways to do things has been core to our approach. This applies to everything we do, from how we enhance product functionality and usability through to how we provide training and even package deliveries.
We focus on anticipating changing requirements and designing solutions that are intuitive, practical and easy-to-use in routine laboratory environments, with a defining focus on continuous improvement.
The recently launched Inhaled Dissolution Apparatusâ„¢ IDA is an excellent example of what this means for customers. It is an off-the-shelf product designed for reliable, reproducible and routine measurement, already in place to meet emerging regulatory requirements.
The Inhaled Dissolution Apparatusâ„¢ IDA, developed to support reliable, reproducible measurement as inhaler testing requirements continue to evolve.
Our early excellence in impactor manufacturing led to Copley being selected as one of only two suppliers of the Next Generation Impactor (NGI) when it was introduced in 2000.
Trusted:
Hard-earned and easily lost, trust is fundamental in pharmaceutical testing. Over the years, we’ve built confidence in Copley by:
- Providing equipment that is well-designed, robustly engineered and built to last.
- Sharing practical guidance to help improve efficiency, strengthen data integrity, and interpret regulatory guidance.
- Consistently delivering on time in full, to budget and specification.
- Supporting customers across the product lifecycle rather than ending our involvement at the point of a completed sale.
- Collaborating in good faith, contributing our experience to industry groups and consortia.
Longevity is also a defining attribute, with customers trusting us to be with them for the long-term.
The first NGI still returns to us for stage mensuration on a regular basis. More than 20 years on, it still performs reliably with performance rigorously confirmed year-after-year, providing continued confidence in results.
Compliant:
Suppliers can play an important role in helping to manage the regulatory demands placed on the pharmaceutical industry. Ensuring compliance has become progressively more complex over time, and we’ve ramped up our support in step with those changes.
Key to our ability to support customers in this vital area are:
- A robust understanding of best practice and regulatory requirements.
- Tools and services for calibration, maintenance, training, commissioning, and repair.
- Timely and comprehensive systems and documentation for IQ/OQ and PQ.
- Solutions designed to comply with compendial requirements, 21 CFR Part 11 and GMP standards, as appropriate.
Together, these principles define the standard our customers can expect from every Copley solution, supporting confident and compliant operation.
A unique customer offering
In the early days, our customers were local, relatively few, and largely focused on tablet manufacturing; metered dose inhalers (MDIs) were yet to be invented.
Today, we support over a thousand customers worldwide, from start-ups to big pharma, working across a wide range of pharmaceutical products from tablets, through transdermals, to every type of orally inhaled and nasal drug product (OINDP).
Early Copley inhaler testing equipment, developed to support the characterisation of inhaled drug products as the ‘new’ method of drug delivery began to evolve.
The essence of our business, designing and manufacturing pharmaceutical testing products, remains unchanged. However, in response to evolving customer needs, we’ve progressively expanded our offering to provide broader support across the workflow.
This includes:
- Software to ease analysis and data processing.
- Tools for automation.
- Extensive, freely accessible educational resources.
- Regular presentations and workshops at industry events.
- Industry-first training packages such as the Inhaler Testing Academy®.
- Highly valued servicing options.
Modern Copley solutions in practice, combining equipment, software and workflows to support efficient, reliable testing.
This broader approach reflects the pressures on modern laboratories and the growing emphasis on connected workflows, data integrity and efficiency. This shift is reflected in the way our solutions are used in combination, rather than in isolation.
Rather than simply supplying equipment, we provide integrated solutions that combine products, software, automation and services to help customers address specific pharmaceutical testing challenges.
Copley Inhaler Testing Data Analysis Software (CITDAS) is one example of this approach. First launched in 1999, it quickly became a vital tool for many analysts. It simplifies the processing of cascade impaction data in line with compendial requirements, supporting consistent, compliant determination of aerodynamic particle size distributions (APSDs). This provision has progressively evolved in line with customer needs, most recently with the development of Inhalytix®+.
Anticipating a changing workplace
For many pharmaceutical laboratories, the key challenge today is balancing productivity with data integrity, in increasingly complex environments.
Key questions include:
- How best to implement and benefit from digitalisation.
- How to manage, protect and access increasingly complex datasets.
- How far to automate without introducing unnecessary risk.
OINDP testing presents some unique difficulties. Techniques such as cascade impaction are not easily suited to end-to-end automation, and manual analysis remains common across many labs.
In response, we are developing solutions that support a pragmatic, step-by-step approach to improvement, including:
- Complementary solutions for low-risk, incremental automation.
- Powerful software to drive workflows and collect and process data.
- Next-generation test equipment with improved interconnectivity.
Our goal is to help customers build flexible, connected workflows that improve efficiency while safeguarding data integrity.
What’s next?
While we are marking this milestone, our focus is firmly on the future and how we continue Helping Scientists to Improve People’s Lives.
As testing becomes more complex, more connected and increasingly data-driven, with greater emphasis on digital workflows and robust data management, our role is to provide solutions that help customers work efficiently while maintaining confidence in their results.
We’ll continue to do this by:
- Supporting scientists with practical, problem-solving solutions tailored to their specific needs.
- Providing an integrated offering that combines products, software, automation and services.
- Playing an active role in the industries we serve, contributing to and learning from developments in pharmaceutical testing science.
While much has changed over the last 80 years, much has remained constant.
Pharmaceutical testing requirements continue to evolve. Customers continue to need suppliers they can rely on, and experts who can help them navigate complex regulatory and data requirements.
As we enter our 9th decade, we have the expertise, resources and commitment to meet that need. Helping Scientists Improve People’s Lives by providing relevant, easy-to-use, solutions that customers can trust remains at the core of what we do.
Copley Scientific headquarters in Nottinghamshire reflects our roots and ongoing commitment to supporting customers worldwide.
