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

Tuesday 29 May 2012

Evonik IPO to proceed

Evonik's owners RAG and CVC plan to go ahead with an IPO of the chemicals unit in June. Reports suggest the firm could raise €5bn after delaying the IPO last year.
Reuters

Albemarle is increasing prices for all grades of ibuprofen by 15%


Fierce Pharma Manufacturing

Angel Biotechnology has successfully completed an MHRA inspection at its Pentlands facility


Angel Bio

Thursday 24 May 2012

Ian Shott has been appointed as president of AMRI Europe


Albany Business Journal

Codexis and Merck extend collaboration

Merck has extended its catalyst and process development collaboration with Codexis to 2015. Merck will use Codexis' enzyme products to develop more cost- and resource-efficient manufacturing processes for its pipeline of therapeutic candidates. To date Merck has evaluated the use of enzymes across programs in various stages of development and the companies have collaborated to develop enzymes for custom reactions such as for sitagliptin.
Pharmaceutical Business Review

Recipharm to expand

Recipharm plans to use a new €90m loan facility to acquire niche CDMOs, invest in existing facilities and build long term partnerships with major pharmaceuticals companies.
Outsourcing Pharma

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Lonza will provide process development and scale-up efforts for manufacturing viral vectors for Avalanche Biotechnologies gene therapy


GEN

ReNeuron has contracted Angel Biotechnology to provide GMP stem cell manufacturing services for completion of its stroke clinical trial


Angel Biotechnology

Carbogen Amcis drags on Dishman

Dishman Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals sales for FY 2012 rose 9% to $208m although profits fell 29% to $10m. The Carbogen Amcis business reported a Q4 turnover of $77m with a loss of $3m although the company expects the unit to grow significantly in terms of topline and bottomline in its 2013 year.
Money Control

Codexis granted patent

Codexis has been granted a US patent covering biocatalytic processes for the preparation of fused bicyclic proline compounds. These compounds are used to make key intermediates in the synthesis of leading hepatitis-C therapeutics.
Codexis

Tuesday 15 May 2012

API Corporation has added the pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing and sales operations of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation


Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma

Codexis reported Q1 2012 product revenues of $15.2m up 17% on 2011 driven by increased sales of atorvastatin-related intermediates


Codexis

AmPac sales revenues rise in Q2

American Pacific's fine chemical division reported Q2 2012 sales of $20.6m up 28% from 2011 primarily due to strong revenues of anti-viral products. However, this was offset by lower oncology products revenues.
In-pharma Technologist

Thursday 10 May 2012

Angel Biotechnology has acquired the Devro Medical collagen manufacturing business for £200,000


BBC

Mixed Q1 for AMRI

AMRI reported mixed results for its manufacturing units in Q1 2012. Sales fell 7% to $9.8m for its development/small scale manufacturing, and rose 6% to 23.2m for the large scale manufacturing business.
AMRI

Wednesday 9 May 2012

BASF has acquired omega-3 fatty acid maker Equateq


In-pharma Technologist

Pharma weak for DSM

DSM has reported weak Q1 performance in its pharmaceutical facing businesses. However, the company said the first signs of improvement are visible. DSM attributed its 7% growth in sales to a better performance at DSM Pharmaceutical Products and slightly better prices at DSM Sinochem Pharmaceuticals.
DSM

Wacker's Biosolutions unit reported a 9% increase in Q1 sales to €41.2m


Wacker

Tuesday 8 May 2012

Lonza's Q1 in line with expectations

Lonza reported its business performance was in line with expectations in the first quarter of 2012 and that its custom manufacturing business has continued pipeline development and signed new contracts ranging from pre-clinical to commercial products. The company also reported that capacity utilisation in both chemical and biological manufacturing was 75%.
Lonza

Carbogen Amcis looks east

Dishman Pharmaceuticals & Chemicals is refocussing its Carbogen Amcis subsidiary by expanding from its traditional Europe and the US markets towards Japan and other territories. In addition, Dishman has reduced manpower at Carbogen Amcis bringing down the wage bill significantly. The company said these changes are expected to strengthen Carbogen Amcis' financial performance in the fourth quarter of the fiscal 2012.
Business Standard

Cambrex Q1 sales rise

Cambrex reported a 14% increase in Q1 sales to $70.6m and EBITDA increased by 41% to $15.6m. The company attributed the increase in sales to higher volumes of controlled substances and generic APIs.
Cambrex

Thursday 3 May 2012

Pfenex anthrax contract renewed

US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has exercised its option to extend its contract with Pfenex to develop a production strain and process for the production of bulk recombinant protective antigen (rPA) from anthrax. Under the contract Pfenex will continue to develop an rPA-based anthrax vaccine from rPA produced in Pseudomonas fluorescens. To date, Pfenex has demonstrated that a strongly immunogenic, stable and protective form of rPA could be expressed and recovered from the highly efficient fermentation of a strain of P. fluorescens engineered to produce rPA.
Pfenex

Cambrex’s Charles City, Iowa, API manufacturing facility has successfully completes and FDA GMP inspection


Pharmaceutical Business Review