Thursday, 15 July 2010
Monday, 12 July 2010
Thursday, 8 July 2010
Jubilant to focus on life sciences
Jubilant Organosys is to spin off its agri-chem and performance polymer business units into a separate business Jubilant Industries and rename itself Jubilant Life Sciences.
Reuters
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
BASF merges Swiss fine chems units
BASF has merged its Evionnaz, Switzerland- based businesses BASF Orgamol Pharma Solutions and BASF Fine Chemicals Switzerland into a single organisation, BASF Pharma (Evionnaz). BASF said the merger reduces complexity at its site and simplifies processes.
In-Pharma Technologist
Thursday, 1 July 2010
Aesica acquires R5, plans more
Aesica has acquired R5, which develops and manufactures new medicines and clinical trial materials, for an undisclosed sum. Chief Executive, Robert Hardy, said the company is currently considering a number of additional takeover targets overseas as part of its expansion plans including a formulation manufacturer in the US and Europe.
North East Business
CPhI to be held in Frankfurt in 2011
The annual trade show will take place on 25-27 October 2011 at the Messe, Frankfurt.
PR Newswire
DCGI to inspect China plants
India's drug regulator, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), is planning to start inspecting manufacturers in China supplying intermediates and APIs to Indian manufacturers.
DWS Pillscribe
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
ICICI seeks buyer for RFCL
ICICI Ventures is looking to sell RFCL, which includes fine chemicals and in vitro diagnostics businesses. ICICI is believed to be looking to raise $87m.
Business Standard
Borregaard closes Italian plant
Borregaard Synthesis is closing its production plant in Ravenna, Italy, as a result of challenging market conditions which it does not see changing in the near future. 40 employees will be affected.
Borregaard
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Ricerca gains DEA licence; ISO 9001 certification
Ricerca Biosciences has gained a US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) licence for its Concord, OH, facility which allows the company to produce controlled bulk APIs for phase I to II trials. Additionally, Ricerca's Lyon facility has obtained the ISO 9001:2008 certification. The company's Taipei facility received the ISO 9001:2008 certification in October 2009.
Outsourcing Pharma
Ricerca
Monday, 21 June 2010
UKTI seeks companies for UK pavilion at CPhI
UK Trade & Investment is seeking UK-based companies offering UK-origin products and services within the fine and speciality chemical industry, as well as relevant service providers to the pharmaceutical industry for the UK pavilion at CPhI in October.
For more information contact UKTI
Codexis and Merck receive Presidential award
Merck and Codexis have been awarded the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award from the US Environmental Protection Agency for their development of a novel biocatalytic method for the synthesis of diabetes drug, sitagliptin. The award recognises new technologies that help prevent pollution by reducing or eliminating hazardous waste in industrial production. Additionally, the companies have published details of the process, which uses a customised enzyme to perform a key step in the synthesis, in the journal Science.
Codexis
Reuters
FDA plans new manufacturing rules
The US FDA is planning to new regulations to tighten up regulations for drugmakers that outsource manufacturing. The FDA said it may require drugmakers to conduct on-site audits of contract manufacturing facilities. Additionally, the agency is considering issuing warning letters to both the contact manufacturer and drugmaker if issues are found.
Wall Street Journal
Thursday, 17 June 2010
Jubilant invests in Gujarat
Jubilant Organosys is building two 10,000-tonne/year units at its special economic zone at Bharuch in Gujarat. One plant will produce niacinamide and the other 3-cyanopyridine.
Business Standard
SAFC invests in Scotland and Missouri facilities
Sigma-Aldrich's SAFC division is expanding its network of global 'Centers of Excellence' designed specifically to support the seamless upstream and downstream production of liquid cell culture reagents at its St. Louis, Missouri site and its Irvine, Scotland facility. The work is expected to finish in Q4 2010.
SAFC
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Lonza adds development services
Lonza has launched a new set of immunogenicity, stability and protein engineering services designed to improve the quality, safety, efficacy and manufacturability of antibodies, therapeutic proteins and vaccines. The Applied Protein Services platform complements the company's process development and manufacturing capabilities while advancing its efforts to incorporate Quality by Design (QbD) principles.
Lonza
Xcellerex building biomanufacturing facility
Xcellerex has started construction of its state-of-the-art cGMP biomanufacturing facility in Marlborough, MA. The facility will use Xcellerex's single use bioreactors and downstream unit operations to provide bridge biomanufacturing services for clients that are planning or building their own facilities using Xcellerex technology. The plant, which is due to be completed in September, will also support Xcellerex’s contract manufacturing operations.
Xcellerex
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Albemare to build kilo-lab in Belgium
Albemarle fine chemistry services division is building a state of the art kilo lab in Louvain la Neuve, Belgium. The facility will contain the highest quality processes and safety features and have capabilities up to and including 50L glass lined vessels.
Albemarle
Ash Stevens to expand capacity
Ash Stevens will invest $20m to expand its API production capabilities in Riverview, MI, over the next five years. CEO Stephen Munk believes this will expand production by 50-80% and allow the company to hire another 50 workers. In the first phase Ash Stevens will add a 1000m
Crain's Detroit
Fine chems sales grow for Johnson Matthey
Sales at Johnson Matthey's Fine Chemicals Division rose 2% to £219m and operating profit rose 13% to £55.8m. The company expects to deliver steady growth in the divison, but said that H1 results this year would be impacted by the absence of the $12m one-off benefit in 2009/10 from the launch of the generic version of Adderall XR.
Johnson Matthey
Thursday, 27 May 2010
AMRI cuts back in US
AMRI is closing its Rensselaer, NY, facility, with the loss of 50 jobs. A further 30 jobs will be lost at its other US facilities while the company plans to add 180 jobs in Asia as it invests $30m in its international facilities.
Albany Business Journal
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
Pfizer cuts eight manufacturing sites; cuts back at others
Pfizer plans to cease operations at eight plants in Ireland, Puerto Rico and the United States by late 2015 and reduce activities at six factories in those countries, plus Germany and Britain. The cuts will result in 6000 job losses.
Reuters
Consortium passes passes flu vax manufacturing test
A consortium led by Xcellerex has successfully demonstrated the production of purified swine flu H1 hemagglutinin (California strain) in 42 days starting from the amino acid sequence of the protein. The test results exceeded the goal for rate of production by at least 10 fold and exceeded all product quality specifications. The team, guided by BioPharm Services, combined Pfenex’s Pseudomonas fluorescens-based rapid strain engineering platform with Xcellerex’s microbial high speed process development and single-use manufacturing technologies and deltaDOT’s label free CE-based analytical technology.
In-Pharma Technologist
Thursday, 13 May 2010
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
American Peptide expands peptide production capacity
American Peptide has expanded its Vista, California cGMP peptide production facility. The large-scale facility expansion includes four new peptide purification suites. The company will also add two new synthesis suites and multi-kg lyophilisation capacity.
In-Pharma Technologist
BioUetikon adds capacity
BioUetikon has installed a single use bioreactor train with 50L, 250L and 1000L capacity tanks. The train also includes complimentary scale GMP buffer and media preparation.
BioUetikon
Cambrex Q1 sales decline
Cambrex's first quarter 2010 sales declined 6.4%, compared to 2009, to $56.2m. Cambrex said the decrease is primarily due to the timing of orders for two APIs manufactured under long-term supply agreements, a customer supply chain disruption for an API manufactured under a long-term supply agreement, and a feed additive for which a contract expired. Additionally, Cambrex said lower pricing of certain generic APIs and a product utilising its drug delivery technology also contributed to the decrease.
Cambrex
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
DSM to build Australian biopharma plant
The Queensland and Australian governments will fund Australia's first biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing facility in Brisbane. The 7000m3 facility to be built and operated by DSM will provide mammalian process development and cGMP clinical and commercial manufacturing services. The new facility is anticipated to be commissioned and operational in 2013.
In-Pharma Technologist
BPTF introduces API quality agreement
Socma's Bulk Pharmaceuticals Task Force (BPTF) has developed a template to help manufacturers and customers standardise API quality agreements and comply with US regulatory requirements.
Socma
Thursday, 29 April 2010
India tries to prevent EU clampdown on manufacturing facilities
The Indian government is lobbying hard in an attempt to prevent European lawmakers introducing legislation to require the European Medicines Agency to carry out pre-inspection of manufacturing facilities. European fine chemicals companies have been lobbying hard for the legislation which is designed to prevent low quality APIs entering the European market.
Economic Times
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
Stable Q1 for DSM; outlook tough
DSM said that activity for its Pharmaceutical Products business remained low and Q1 sales were stable compared to last year. The company saw lower API sales following the loss of some products, but this was offset by the completion of the H1N1 vaccine shipments. Looking forward, DSM said it expected the full year results to be lower than in 2009 due to ongoing challenges at in the business unit said there were "some very tough quarters ahead".
DSM
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
Lower fine chemicals volumes at Albemarle
Sales for Albemarle's fine chemicals business grew 13%, compared to 2009, to $136m in Q1 2010. The company attributed this to increased volumes in performance chemicals but saw lower volumes in fine chemistry services.
Albemarle
Monday, 26 April 2010
Codexis launches IPO
Codexis launched its IPO at $13/share - the low end of its projected range of $13-15 - bringing in $78m. In its first two days of trading the shares rose to $14.
San Jose Business Journal
SAFC grows 14% in Q1
Sigma Aldrich's fine chemicals business, SAFC showed sales growth of 14.3% to $152m in Q1 2010, continuing the trend seen in H2 2009. The company also took a $6m restructuring charge during the quarter related to the consolidation of some facilities and the elimination of about 100 jobs. SAFC saw double digit growth of its custom pharma products driven by higher demand for HPAPIs and viral vectors met from its recently opened California and Wisconsin facilities. The company has also seen an increase in booked orders.
Seeking Alpha
Lonza remains cautious
Lonza's Q1 demand remained consistent with 2009, but reported that volatility still persists for its custom manufacturing businesses. The company said its pipelines remain strong and it expects higher capacity utilisation this year. Additionally, it is seeing increased levels of partnership discussion in specialty areas such peptides or HAPIs and continuous high level discussions on pipeline outsourcing.
Reuters
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Evonik opens China API facility
Evonik has started production at its new API facility in Nanning, China. The 70m3 capacity plan, which can be doubled in size if required, will primarily supply the Chinese market. The plant has been set up in collaboration with a European pharmaceutical company for which Evonik will produce various active ingredients under a multi-year supply contract and in compliance with cGMP.
Evonik
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
Angel Bio profit rises in 2009; considers expansion
Angel Biotechnology saw both profit and revenues rise 55% during 2009 compared to 2008. The company reported revenues of £1.48m. Company chairman, Paul Harper said "Angel is well positioned to take advantage of the manufacturing opportunities that are emerging in an evolving business environment and are considering the Company's expansion options in the light of the increased volume of business."
InvestEgate
Monday, 12 April 2010
Ampac acquires Texas facility
Ampac Fine Chemicals has acquired a fine chemicals manufacturing facility in LaPorte, TX. The $475,000, plus costs, acquisition increases the company's capacity by 30%. The facility, which passed FDA in 2008, was completed in 2001 and significant new equipment was added in the last four years. Aslam Malik, President of Ampac said "this additional capability in Texas, which includes commercial scale hydrogenation, as well as azide, cyanide, and phosgene capabilities, fits well with our areas of established expertise in energetic chemistry and continuous processing."
Ampac
Wednesday, 7 April 2010
Thursday, 1 April 2010
Ranbaxy to use Pfenex technology
Ranbaxy will develop an undisclosed biosimilar therapeutic using Pfenex's Pseudomonas-based recombinant protein expression technology. The two companies will develop production strains and the production process for the product.
Business Standard
