NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE PHARMACEUTICAL FINE CHEMICAL AND CUSTOM MANUFACTURING SECTOR

Thursday 27 August 2009

Cobra Biomanufacturing will provide development services for an Adenovirus based product for a European biotech company

Cobra

Archimica and Chemic cooperate to scale manufacturing

Chemic Laboratories and Archimica Group have formed an API development and manufacturing cooperation. Archimica will scale DEA controlled and other API to commercial scale after Chemic Laboratories have developed and produced the first quantities.
Mass Bio

Cambrex Milan manufacturing facility receives FDA warning letter

Reuters

BASF ceo says company not immune to takeover, cost would be $100m

Bloomberg

Perrigo has acquired 85% of Verdants Drugs and Fine Chemicals for $12m

Business Standard

Lonza reiterates Patheon bid

Lonza reiterated its bid for Patheon as JLL allowed its offer to expire. JLL holds 57% of Patheon. Lonza has bid $3.55/share for the company and will only proceed with an offer if it can secure 67%.
Wall Street Journal

JLL rejects Lonza bid for Patheon

JLL, the majority stakeholder in Patheon, has rejected Lonza's $460m offer for the Canadian company. JLL currently holds 57% of Patheon.
PR Newswire

Lonza makes offer for Patheon

Lonza has made a non-binding offer to acquire Patheon. Lonza has offered $3.55/share valuing Patheon at $460m. Lonza ceo Stefan Borgas said Lonza was looking to expand its offering to cover more of the manufacturing supply chain and Patheon's finished dosage manufacturing capability would fill a gap. He added that Patheon was one of several opportunities in the area that lonza had been following over the last couple of years.
Reuters

Thursday 13 August 2009

FDA expands access to experimental drugs

The US FDA has will allow greater access to experimental drugs for seriously ill patients. Under the new rules drugmakers will be able to provide experimental medicines to patients with no other options.
Bloomberg

Wednesday 12 August 2009

Problems at FDA

The US Department of Health and Human Services is investigating Janet Woodcock, the director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, for conflict-of-interest during a drug approval. In addition, Daniel Schultz, head of the FDA's device regulation division, has resigned from the agency.
Wall Street Journal
Wall Street Journal

PCAS and Nanosyn form jv

PCAS-Nanosyn, a joint venture between PCAS and Nanosyn, will operate a cGMP kilolab in Santa Rosa, CA. Christian Moretti, chairman of PCAS, said the jv allows PCAS to offer preclinical and clinical trial API synthetic capabilities nearer to its clients in the US.
Nanosyn

Tuesday 11 August 2009

Emergent BioSolutions is acquiring a manufacturing facility, from a CMO, in Maryland for production of its anthrax vaccine

Seeking Alpha

FDA to get tougher, faster

FDA Commissioner, Margaret Hamburg, has said the Agency will enforce its regulations in a faster and more aggressive way. Among the processes being introduced the FDA will streamline the warning letter process.
Washington Post

Reaxa has received ISO 9001:2008 accreditation for its catalyst and scavenger manufacturing

Reaxa

Informex looking for 2012 location

Informex is asking potential delegates where they would like the 2012 event to be held. The choices are Charlotte, Houston, Miami Beach, Philadelphia and San Diego. The 2010 event will be held in San Francisco and the 2011 event in Charlotte, NC.
Visit LinkedIn to vote

Wednesday 5 August 2009

Ampac's fine chemicals saw Q3 revenues decrease due to a change in customer demand for CNS products

Ampac

Dishman plans Carbogen Amcis changes

R Vyas, MD of Dishman Pharma said the company is looking at making some drastic changes to improve the EBDITA margins in Carbogen Amcis following the appointment of Nick Green as president of the company's CRAM activities.
Money Control

Cambrex reports sales rise

Excluding the impact of currency sales at Cambrex rose 2%. The company attributed the rise to the timing of orders related to two APIs manufactured under long-term supply agreements and an API that incorporates its polymeric drug delivery technology. However Cambrex said this was partially offset by lower sales of generic APIs and feed additives.
Cambrex

DSM expects pharma business improvement by year end

Profits for DSM's pharma business fell from €37m to €14m in the first half of the year. The company put this down to lower business activities in its custom manufacturing business at DSM Pharmaceutical Products, related to de-stocking, delay in approvals and the loss of some larger contracts, and weak market conditions for DSM Anti-Infectives. The company expects the year-end results to be 'substantially lower than last year due to lower prices at Anti-Infectives and challenges to fill the pipeline at DSM Pharmaceutical Products'. DSM said it expects the the results of the Pharmaceutical Products business to be better towards the end of the year.
Capital

Monday 3 August 2009

DSM Pharmaceuticals has received SafeBridge certification for the potent sterile fill-finish production area in Greenville, NC

SafeBridge

Cherokee Pharmaceuticals will supply DuPont with a new fermentation product

Cherokee Pharma

Dishman to expand pharma SEZ

As a result in the downturn in the engineering sector, Dishman has cancelled its engineering special economic zone near Ahmedabad, India. Instead, the company will merge the land with its ongoing pharma SEZ project.
Economic Times

Hovione sees rapid sales growth

Hovione's sales for the year ended 31 March 2009 grew 21%, compared to 2008, to $125.5m. Hovione put the growth down to a significant investment in particle design technologies and in new production lines, both at Hisyn, China and at Hovione Portugal.
Hovione

Meridian Life Science has completed construction and validation for its Memphis, TN, cGMP biopharmaceutical facility

Outsourcing Pharma

Aesica plans a £5m investment in its R&D centre in Cramlington, UK

NE Business

Lonza has launched a fixed-price service for manufacturing up to 1g of microbially derived biopharmaceuticals

Lonza