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

Thursday 30 August 2012

Sales rise for Siegfried in H1

Siegfried reported H1 2012 sales of CHF178.7m up 2.9% on 2011 and profits rose 29% to CHF40.1m. The company said that sales of drug products rose markedly after the launch of new drugs in the first half year, however it's drug substance business passed lower costs for raw materials on to customers.
In-pharma Technologist

Wednesday 29 August 2012

Ark to concentrate on contract manufacturing

Ark Therapeutics has announced that it will no longer invest in proprietary drug development, outlicense its development assets and focus on contract manufacturing. The company has attracted some contracts for its viral manufacturing expertise over the last year and recently appointed a new ceo with manufacturing experience. Financial analysts were split on the decision. Canacord Genuity believes that Ark has a substantial opportunity as a partner for companies in viral product development while Nomra Code said that the question remains whether the Ark will be able to attract sufficient manufacturing contracts in the near term to attain profitability of its contract manufacturing services business.
Ark Therapeutics

Angel Biotechnology will develop and manufacture arGentis Pharmaceuticals collagen product for systemic sclerosis


Angel Biotechnology

Conrad Winters has been appointed as Director, Drug Product Development at Hovione


PR Newswire

Thursday 23 August 2012

Carbogen Amcis returns to profit

Dishman reported sales at Carbogen Amcis of $24m for its first quarter. Janmejay R Vyas, chairman and managing director of Dishman Pharma, said that the company has spent 18 months restructuring the Swiss business and that they plan to consolidate in the near future. He expects that Carbogen Amcis will contribute a profit of $7m to Dishman this year.
Business Standard

Wednesday 15 August 2012

Boehringer Ingelheim reported sales from biopharmaceutical manufacturing falling from €233m to €214m in H1 2012 in the first half of 2012


Boehringer Ingelheim

New deal for Cambrex leads to expansion

Cambrex will supply phase III and pre-launch quantities an API for an un-named customer. The company expects the agreement to contribute $20m in 2013. In order to meet the demand under the new agreement, Cambrex will invest significant capital over the remainder of 2012 and in early 2013 to expand our multipurpose large scale cGMP assets.
Cambrex

Siegfried Holding will exchange 80,000m2 of land with the City of Zofingen and StWZ Energie AG, and will obtain land bordering its premises for expansion


Siegfried

Ark Therapeutics and EMD Millipore will collaborate to optimise production of viral based bioengineered vaccines and other live viral products for pilot and production scale


Ark Therapeutics

Laureate Biopharma has developed the process and is manufacturing ZZ Biotech's potential therapeutic for ischemic stroke for phase I clinical trials


Laureate Biopharma

Ampac fine chemicals returns to profit

Ampac reported fine chemicals revenues of $36.4m in its Q3 2012 up 18% on 2011, led by strong anti-viral products revenues. The company said its fine chemicals activities returned to profit during the quarter which it attributed to redesigned processes and cost savings initiatives.
Seeking Alpha

Monday 13 August 2012

Aurobindo Pharma plans to earn 25% of its annual revenues from its custom research and manufacturing business in the next 4-5 years


Economic Times

Gallus BioPharmaceuticals will provide process development and clinical and commercial supply for mammalian cell-based biopharmaceutical products to customers of Theorem Clinical Research


Theorem Clinical Research

Fuji Pharma acquires Thai plant

Fuji Pharma has acquired the Olic pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Ayutthaya province, Thailand, for $53m from DKSH. Charles Toomey, executive vice-president for healthcare business unit at DKSH, said that contract manufacturing is a non-core competency for DKSH and that Fuji has significant manufacturing expertise.
Bangkok Post

Small sales rise and restructuring at DSM

Sales rose 2% to €182m in Q2 2012 for DSM's pharmaceutical business. The company said that business conditions are likely to remain challenging, although it anticipates that it will make further strategic progress. The company also announced a series of restructuring measures including the termination of biosimilar product development by its Percivia joint venture, which will now focus on the existing PER.C6 technology licensing business.
In-pharma Technologist

Boehringer Ingelheim will manufacture gevokizumab for Xoma and Servier at its Biberach, Germany facility, following the transfer of Xoma's berkeley facility to CMC


GEN