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

Thursday 29 October 2009

Lonza to cut jobs, costs

Lonza will cut about 450 jobs and reduce costs by CHF60-80m. Chief executive, Stefan Borgas, said the cuts come as a result of cancellations and postponements in large-scale biopharmaceutical custom manufacturing, an 18 month delay of a lead customer project in cell therapy due to clinical disappointments and continued low order level for Lonza's Exclusive Synthesis due to key customers reducing net working capital. The company's share price fell around 20% on the news.
Last week, Lonza withdrew its $460m bid for Patheon after the major shareholder, JLL, refused to talk. Borgas said the company is still looking for value creating add-on acquisitions. Lonza is looking to enlarge its life sciences business technology portfolio, strengthen its offering for life-science researchers including CRO services; strengthen the CMO value chain by entering finished dosage form development and manufacturing; and add niche portfolio products to the nutrition business.
Reuters

Wednesday 28 October 2009

Evonik sells AlzChem group to BluO private equity fund

Evonik

Excelsyn shows full year sales of £11.7m a 16% rise on 2008

Manufacturing Chemist

Lanxess CEO says Saltigo not for sale

ICIS

Stronger quarter for SAFC

SAFC showed a 4.8% increase increase in Q3 organic sales helped by sales of H1N1 vaccine adjuvants to pharma companies. Rakesh Sachdev, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, said sales were also helped by 'new customer facilities coming online, new financing becoming available at both biotech and virtual pharmaceutical companies and our customer’s efforts to push early stage clinical trials in response to indications of moderate economic improvements'.
Jai Nagarkatti, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, said 'we delivered a fair amount of what was booked at June 30th, in the third quarter, but our order book remains above 25% higher than what it was at the end of 2008'.
Seeking Alpha

Thursday 22 October 2009

PacificGMP will perform cGMP cell bank development and manufacturing of ArmaGen Technologies antibody fusion protein for phase I trials

PR Newswire

Jubilant plans fundraising and disposals

At its investors conference Jubilant Organosys announced plans to raise Rs5bn ($107m) in funds. In addition the company plans to sell its application polymers division and consumer products division and then change its name to Jubilant Life Sciences.
My Iris

Lonza acquires stake in German biotech, Cilian

Lonza has made an investment in Cilian. The deal gives Lonza right of first refusal for the commercial production of products and access to Cilian's ciliates system for the production of therapeutic proteins and nutritional ingredients. Lonza will transfer a number of patents and patent applications in tis field to Cilian in return for newly issued shares in Cilian.
Lonza

Hovione has purchased manufacturing equipment from Acusphere's Tewksbury, MA, facility for $2.5m

Acusphere

Lonza will provide microbial fermentation, process optimization, technical and regulatory support for Alnara Pharmaceuticals' lead product liprotamase

Lonza

Tuesday 20 October 2009

Lonza withdraws Patheon bid, looks elsewhere for formulation

Lonza has withdrawn its $460m bid for Patheon after the major shareholder, JLL, refused to talk. Lonza said it was looking at other opportunities to add formulation capabilities to its portfolio, which it believes fits with its current growth strategy.
Reuters

Sunday 18 October 2009

Pfizer has completed its acquisition of Wyeth

Pfizer

Lifeline plans acquisitions

Lifeline Industries is planning to complete two acquisitions before the end of the year. Lifeline is in talks to buy Erica's assets for around Rs1.35bn ($29.3m) and hopes to close the deal by the end of this year. The company is also in talks for a second acquisition valued between Rs1.75bn-Rs2.0bn.
Business Standard

Wednesday 14 October 2009

Eden Biodesign will manufacture Biotecnol's Cardiotrophin-1 for phase I clinical trials

Business Wire

Evonik expands US API capabilities

Evonik has purchased Eli Lilly's Tippecanoe, IN, manufacturing facility to strengthen its API production capabilities in the US. Financial terms for the deal, which is expected to close by the end of the year, have not been disclosed. In addition, Evonik has entered into a nine-year API production deal with Lilly.
Reuters

Reaxa will establish an Indian subsidiary for scale-up manufacturing of its catalyst products

In-Pharma Technologist

Tuesday 13 October 2009

Lonza and BioWa have unveiled a new host cell line for manufacturing recombinant antibodies

BioWa

SAFC completes expansion

SAFC Pharma has completed the $12m expansion of its Carlsbad, CA, facility. The company has added two fully segregated state-of-the-art viral product manufacturing suites to expand its services for late phase and commercial clients. In addition SAFC Pharma has installed an Oxford Diffraction SuperNova single crystal X-ray diffraction system at its Pharmorphix Solid State Research Laboratories in Cambridge, UK.
Sigma Aldrich
Sigma Aldrich

Lonza has acquired the preclinical cell and molecular biology assets of Simbiosys Biowares India

Wall Street Journal

Monday 12 October 2009

Arch Pharmalabs will use Orochem Technologies SMB to manufacture an API for an unnamed US innovator

Business Wire

Angel signs £1.2m deal with Materia Medica

Angel Biotechnology has signed a fourth deal with Materia Medica for the GMP manufacture of antibodies. Angel said that 90% of the £1.2m would be invoiced over the next 18 months.
Angel Bio

Carbogen Amcis has entered a partnership with NextPharma Technologies to reduce product development times for customers

NextPharma

Wednesday 7 October 2009

CIA highlights chemical industry to opposition party

The UK Chemical Industries Association has challenged the Conservative opposition to recognise the part manufacturing industries, such as the chemical industry, can play in helping the UK meet economic and green goals.
CIA