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

Wednesday 27 October 2010

Recipharm will manufacture tablets for DuoCort Pharma's orphan drug for the treatment of Addison’s disease

DuoCort Pharma

Swiss Franc and regulators hit Lonza

Lonza said currency exchange to the Swiss Franc was having a impact despite solid sales in Q3. In its Custom Manufacturing business, Lonza said its capacity utilisation and project pipelines continue to increase. In its chemicals manufacturing Lonza has almost 300 projects in the pipeline and is seeing utilisation of almost 75%. In biological manufacturing Lonza has about 240 projects and capacity utilisation just over 75%. The company said the overall positive outsourcing trend it is seeing is counterbalanced by ongoing volatility due to more stringent drug approvals by regulatory authorities, especially in chemical custom manufacturing.
Reuters

Tuesday 26 October 2010

Fine chems sales grow in Albemarle Q3

Albemarle's fine chemicals business showed sales grow 7% to $138.4m in Q3 2010. The company said this was due primarily to higher volumes and improved pricing.
Albemarle

SAFC sales grow in Q3

Sales at Sigma-Aldrich's ice chemicals business unit, SAFC, grew 12% to $167m in Q3 2010. The company said this was partly due to improved growth in the sale of bulk chemical products for development and manufacturing. Rakesh Sachdev, Sigma-Aldrich's SVP, CFO and Chief Administrative Officer, expects SAFC sales in Q4 to continue to be strong, but said he expected the comparison to last year will be less favourable than earlier quarters as a result of strong sales of adjuvants for the H1N1 vaccine, which occurred in the fourth quarter of 2009. Jai Nagarkatti, Sigma-Aldrich's Chairman, President, and CEO, said that in Q3 SAFC's pharma sales grew in the US but fell in Europe.
Seeking Alpha

Recipharm is to phase out manufacturing sterile products at its Ashton-under-Lyne, UK, facility

Recipharm

Monday 18 October 2010

Almac has successfully completed and MHRA inspection of its Clinical Services facility in Craigavon, UK

Almac

Reaxa spins out antibody tech

Reaxa has spun out its antibody drug purification technology business. The new company, ADC Biotechnology, will use IP licensed from Reaxa and aims to deliver significant reduction in manufacturing costs for the new generation of cancer drugs based on antibodies.
Manufacturing Chemist

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Almac invests in biocatalysis

Almac is investing $4m in broadening its biocatalysis R&D expertise. The company said the investment "will be used primarily to focus around discovery of new biocatalytic platforms that can be rapidly implemented and scaled delivering cost effective processes to chiral intermediates".
Almac

SAFC complete Jerusalem expansion

SAFC has completed the expansion of its fermentation capabilities in Jerusalem, Israel. The 5000m2 facility, which is expected to begin production during October 2010, will focus on niche fermentation of APIs and bulk drugs, producing secondary metabolites (antibiotic-like molecules), cytotoxins and large-molecule proteins. 3000m2 of the new facility has been designed to be Biosafety Level 2 compliant which provides the company the capability for manipulation of human pathogens.
GEN

Monday 11 October 2010

BASF adds microreactors

BASF has added two microreactors at its Ludwigshafen, Germany, site to manufacture chemical products on a small scale. One reactor can produce samples of up to about 20 kilograms, and the other can manufacture quantities ranging from one to 50 tonne. BASF said the microreactors operate continuously and are used for reactions that require high pressure or release high levels of heat. The continuous mode of operation and the short reactor residence time of the reaction media ensure end products of consistently high quality.
BASF

Pharmatek Laboratories has added roller compaction to its solid oral dosage form manufacturing capabilities is San Diego, CA

Pharmatek

Elan launches manufacturing business

Elan Drug Technologies launched its Manufacturing Services business at CPhI. The new business provides drug product optimisation, scale-up and commercial scale manufacturing of solid oral dosage forms to pharmaceutical companies.
Elan Drug Technologies

Angel Biotechnology has signed a £100,000 regulatory consultancy contract with Materia Medica

InvestEgate

Lonza receives $35m bond towards $200m expansion in Portsmouth, NH

Fosters Daily Democrat

Jubilant Organosys has changes its name to Jubilant Life Sciences

India Mart

Recipharm has acquired Abbott’s manufacturing site in Parets, Spain for an undisclosed sum

In-Pharm

Saltigo and Reuter Chemische Apparatebau will jointly develop processes for the synthesis of APIs and intermediates

Saltigo

MSD Biologics (formerly Avecia Biologics) will supply ThromboGenics' retinal disorder treatment, microplasmin, for 10 years

Thrombogenics