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

Wednesday 27 January 2010

Recipharm will add aseptic filling and lyophilsation capabilities by acquiring Wasserburger Arzneimittelwerk GmbH

Recipharm

Albemarle fine chemicals sales decline

Sales for Albemarle's Fine Chemicals segment were down 10% - to $146m - in Q4 2009 compared to 2008. The company has seen fine chemicals sales and profitability steadily increase over the past three quarters. Mark Rohr, Albemarle's Chairman, President and CEO, said the company was looking at a number of bolt-on acquisitions to continue growth, primarily in its fine chemicals business.
Seeking Alpha

Sales in Johnson Matthey's Fine Chemicals Division were lower than in Q3 than the previous year, with API sales remaining constant

Johnson Matthey

Monday 25 January 2010

Merck builds pharma salts plant

Merck KGaA has started construction work on a pharmaceutical inorganic salts manufacturing plant in Darmstadt, Germany. The €30m investment will add 50% to the company's current capacity and is expected to be online in mid-2011.
Merck

Wednesday 20 January 2010

AMRI has received SafeBridge Potent Compound Safety Certification for its Rensselaer, NY, HPAPI research laboratories and GMP-manufacturing facilities

AMRI

German grant for downstream processing research

A German research consortium including Rentschler Biotechnology and Boehinger Ingelheim has received €3.2m to develop a pioneering scalable purification method that could cut the cost of downstream protein processing by up to 90%.
Euro Biotech News

Jubilant Organosys plans to raise funds

Bloomberg

Monday 18 January 2010

Angel Biotechnology signed eight contracts worth £2.2m in H2 2009

InvestEgate

Dishman to build four API plants

Dishman plans to build four new API plants, two of which are due to be operational by March 2011 and two by 2012. Dishman will invest $27.4m on the expansion, the majority of which will be from the previously announced fundraising. J R Vyas, Dishman's managing director, said the new plants will increase capacity 400m3.
Economic Times

Baring Private Equity Partners is in discussions to invest up to $150m in pharmaceutical contract manufacturing companies

Economic Times

Rentschler Biotechnologie will develop a manufacturing process for Kenta Biotech's Kenta’s KBSA301 monoclonal antibody

Kenta Biotech

Recipharm has posted the details of its offer for Cobra Biomanufacturing

Recipharm

Lonza closes API plant

Lonza will close its API manufacturing facility at Riverside, PA. Production will be moved to Lonza's other facilities in Europe and China. The closure will affect 175 employees and cost €94.5m.
In-Pharma Technologist

Dishman plans to raise $16.4m by issuing non-convertible debentures

MyIris

Angel Biotechnology has signed a frame agreement and first contract worth £100,000 with Materia Medica

IB Times

Wednesday 6 January 2010

Dishman seeks 20% growth in CRAMS

Dishman is expecting growth of about 20% for its CRAMS segment in the next year according to cfo V V S Murthy. He put this down to easing of inventory rationalisation by big pharma and increasing outsourcing to India.
DNA India

26 drugs approved in 2009

The FDA approved 26 new drugs in 2009 - just one more than in 2008. Of these seven were biologics and 19 small molecules according to analysts at Washington Analysis.
Wall Street Journal

On 1 January Evonik took over the Teppecanoe facility acquired from Eli Lilly

Journal & Courier