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

Wednesday, 10 October 2012

BASF will launch a production line for precious metal-based fine chemical catalysts in Mangalore, India


BASF

Dr Reddy's Laboratories has expanded activated mPEG manufacturing and the development and manufacture of APIs at its manufacturing facility in Mirfield, UK


Pharmabiz

Olympus Biotech will provide contract biomanufacturing from its state-of-the-art facility in Lebanon, NH


Outsourcing Pharma

Almac readies API manufacturing expansion

Almac has almost completed the expansion of its API manufacturing facility in Craigavon, UK. The upgraded facility, which will be operational by the end of the year, includes the installation of two 1000L reactors and state-of-the-art pressure filter dryer.
Almac

Almac and DSM to collaborate in biocatalysis

Almac and DSM Pharmaceutical Products will partner their biocatalysis capabilities for the manufacturing of APIs. Almac said its expertise in rapid enzyme identification, scale-up and implementation into early phase projects complements DSM’s experience and track record of over 30 commercial manufacturing bioprocesses run on a multi-ton scale.
Pharmaceutical Business Review

Sunday, 7 October 2012

Dalton Pharma Services will provide scale up and manufacture of a conjugate vaccine for tuberculosis developed by the University of Guelph


Research Views

Novasep has appointed Roger-Marc Nicoud as non-executive chairman of the board and Patrick Glaser as president and CEO


Novasep

AMPAC Fine Chemicals has applied to the US Drug Enforcement Administration to be registered as a bulk manufacturer of Tapentadol


Federal Register

Lonza-Teva biosimilar on hold

Teva has suspended its phase III study of a biosimilar of Rituxan, which it os jointly developing with Lonza. Lonza's shares fell as the company said the partners are evaluating how to move forward with testing as the regulatory environment for biosimilars gets more restrictive.
Fierce Biotech and Business Week

Lonza will manufacture of Celladon’s phase IIb-stage targeted enzyme replacement therapy candidate Mydicar for clinical trials


GEN

BASF relocates pharma ingredients to New Jersey

BASF will centralise the management of its Pharma Ingredients and Services business unit in Florham Park, NJ. The unit, which was previously managed from Evionnaz, Switzerland, will be led by Scott Thomson as Senior Vice President. BASF said the relocation of management will not affect the regional business and production units in Europe, including Evionnaz.
New Jersey Star Ledger

SAFC expands in Irvine

SAFC will add a powder manufacturing line at its Irvine, Scotland, facility. The expansion will be supported with a £1.5m grant from Scottish Enterprise and will create 24 new jobs.
St Louis Business Journal

Thursday, 27 September 2012

CHP adds capacity

Cedarburg Hauser Pharmaceuticals has expanded its Wisconsin API plant by 50% to meet commercial demand. The company has also added reactor and chiller capacity for GMP cryogenic reactions, made improvements to the air handling systems, installed a reverse osmosis water system, improved isolation capabilities, and upgraded their Emerson DeltaV Digital Automation System.
Cedarburg Hauser Pharmaceuticals

Lonza will develop and manufacture Intellect Neurosciences antibody drug conjugate Conjumab-A


Intellect Neurosciences

Tuesday, 11 September 2012

Navidea blames manufacturer

Navidea Biopharmaceuticals attributed the Complete Response Letter from the US Food and Drug Administration regarding its NDA for Lymphoseek to issues with third-party contract manufacturers. In November 2009, Navidea appointed Reliable Biopharmaceutical Corporation for the manufacture and supply of the API for Lymphoseek. Final product manufacturing including final drug formulation, lyophilization and packaging processes for Lymphoseek is performed by OSO BioPharmaceuticals Manufacturing LLC.
Reuters

Boehringer Ingelheim implements disposable biomanufacturing

Boehringer Ingelheim has implemented single-use biomanufacturing at its mammalian facilities worldwide. The system can incorporate different commercially available single-use systems in 100L and 500L GMP facilities for clinical material supplies or for non-GMP process development.
Biopharmaceutical Business Review

Monday, 10 September 2012

Cambridge Major to add capacity

Cambridge Major Laboratories is to expand its large scale API manufacturing facility in Germantown, WI, as a result of growth in demand. The company will add reactor capacity and isolation equipment. Brian Scanlan, President & CEO of Cambridge Major, said that the company's "invest in the West" policy continues to bear fruit. He added that the company is "very well positioned to support both increasing demand for our commercial products as well as our healthy pipeline of API's in later phases of clinical development."
Milwaukee Business Journal

Codexis to cut 133 jobs after deal with Shell terminated


In-pharma Technologist

Tuesday, 4 September 2012

GE Healthcare has launched a range of modular biomanufacturing facilities


In-pharma Technologist

Piramal Healthcare is rumoured to be in talks to acquire Ind-Swift Laboratories' CRAMS business and facilities


Business Standard

Aesica Partners with University of Bradford

Aesica has partnered with the Centre for Pharmaceutical Engineering Science at the University of Bradford. Aesica will benefit from the University's research facilities and the University will gain access to Aesica's GMP manufacturing facilities.
Manufacturing Chemist

Mike Ironside has been appointed as General Manager, TTC, at Hovione


Hovione

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

Tuesday, 31 July 2012

CMC acquires Xoma facility

CMC Biologics has acquired Xoma's large-scale biologics manufacturing operations Berkeley, CA. The 3100m2 facility includes three 2750L stainless steel bioreactors and two purification suites. CMC expects to begin offering contract manufacturing services from Berkeley when the transaction closes.
GEN

Thursday, 26 July 2012

Custom manufacturing "firm" for Lonza

Lonza reported H1 revenues increasing to CHF1.9bn. The company said demand in its custom manufacturing business was firm, resulting in capacity utilisation above 75% in both chemical and biological plants, as well as a strong project pipeline. Lonza said it had provided a full response to the FDA regarding the 2011 warning letter received at its Hopkinton, MA, plant and that corrective action had been taken. Looking to the future, the company said it has initiated an investment in formulated products.
Reuters

Dalton Pharma Services provided API development and manufacturing for a Dengue fever clinical trial in Singapore


Dalton

Quarterly record sales for SAFC

Sigma-Aldrich's fine chemicals business, SAFC, reported sales of $223m in Q2, with organic growth of 8% over 2011. Company president and ceo Rakesh Sachdev said "We were pleased by the improved performance of our SAFC custom pharma business, which saw solid growth in cGMP manufactured products in second quarter 2012." Sanchev said the division had double digit sales growth for custom-manufactured high-potency compounds to pharma customers which he attributed to customers recognising the company's investment in HPAPI capacity in Wisconsin.
Seeking Alpha

Piramal Healthcare will change its name to Piramal Enterprises following its increase in business activities


Economic Times

Thursday, 19 July 2012

Novasep invests in HPAPI manufacturing

Novasep is investing €3m to expand its highly potent API manufacturing capabilities at its Le Mans, France facility. The expansion will allow Novasep to serve the increased demand for manufacturing of novel anti-cancer therapies. The new facility will include the capability to perform cryogenic chemistry at -60C in hastelloy reactors. The company will also add large-scale HPLC chromatography and drying in confined areas to manufacture ADC toxins at commercial scale. The plant expansion is expected to be fully operational by the beginning of 2013.
Novasep

ScinoPharm will manufacture topiramate the API for Vivus' Qsymia, approved by the FDA earlier this week


ScinoPharm

Record Q2 for Albemarle's fine chemicals

Albemarle reported record sales in Q2 2012 at $208.7m up 13% on 2011. The company attributed this to favourable volumes and pricing, partly offset by unfavorable foreign currency impacts.
Seeking Alpha

DSM Pharmaceutical Products will provide process development and cGMP manufacture for one of Recepta Biopharma's lead antibodies in Groningen, The Netherlands


Pharmaceutical Business Review

Israel and Switzerland have requested exclusion from the EU's rules for API importation


In-pharma Technologist

Monday, 9 July 2012

Siegfried to build API plant in China

Siegfried, supported by the Chinese development organisation NETDA, will build an API manufacturing plant in Nantong, China. The facility will meet cGMP standards. Siegfried said the site has space for a second phase, which may include finished dosage form production. The new facility is expected to be on-stream in 2014.
Pharmaceutical Business Review

ScinoPharm invests in cytotoxic manufacturing

ScinoPharm will invest $37.6m in the construction of a high potency cytotoxic injectable plant at Tainan Science Park. ScinoPharm said the new facility will include space for R&D, quality control, washing, sterilisation, manufacturing, filling, lyophilisation, packaging, and storage. The company expects the plant to be completed in 2014.
ScinoPharm

Aesica plans to add 100 jobs at its Queensborough, UK, facility


Aesica

Tuesday, 3 July 2012

Dishman to cancel SEZ project

Dishman is to exit its special economic zone in Ahmedebad, India, and sell the land for $108m. In 2009, Dishman merged its engineering SEZ into its pharma SEZ.
Economic Times

Lonza has extended its XS Technology platformm to two additional microbial systems: pacha pastoris and bacillius subtilis


Lonza

Albemarle expands API capacity

Albemarle has expanded and upgraded its API manufacturing facility in South Haven, MI. The new capacity came online on 1 June. The investment at South Haven matches the solids handling equipment with the reactor capacity and Albemare claims it will enable the company to advance its growing portfolio of custom API products.
In Pharm

Amag moves to contract manufacturing

Amag Pharmaceuticals plans to close its manufacturing facility in Cambridge, MA, and is moving to an outsourced manufacturing model. The company will reduce its workforce by 45 as a result of the disposal.
Aman Pharmaceuticals

Thursday, 21 June 2012

FDA seeks to secure supply chain

The US Food and Drug Administration is seeking 100 companies to volunteer to join the Secure Supply Chain pilot programme. The programme aims to promote the safety of drugs and active drug ingredients produced outside the US. Applicants will need to meet the programme's criteria, including a requirement that they maintain control over the drug products from the time of manufacture through entry into the country. The FDA hopes the programme will expedite the entry of products meeting the pilot's criteria into the US and allow it to focus its resources on foreign-produced drugs that fall outside the programme and that may not be compliant.
Regulatory Focus

Hovione reposted a 24% rise in sales for the year ended March 2012 to $180m, the sixth consecutive year of sales growth


Hovione

Tuesday, 19 June 2012

Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies to expand facilities in UK

Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies is further increasing its contract process development and manufacturing capabilities through the expansion of its services in mammalian cell line development and process development, and the addition of a new multi-product cGMP facility in Billingham, UK. The company said work has commenced on a state-of-the-art cGMP cell bank and 1000L biologics manufacturing facility based upon single-use technology for both upstream and downstream operations. The cell bank manufacturing facility is expected to be available from Q2, 2013 and the mammalian cell culture biologics manufacturing facility is expected to be validated and fully operational in the second half of 2013.
Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies

CMC Biologics' Bothell, WA, facility has received GMP certification from the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency


PR Newswire

Codexis has been awarded the annual Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award for its simvastatin manufacturing process


Codexis

DSM antibody deal

DSM Pharmaceutical Products will use its XD high cell density process technology to produce antibodies for a major pharma company at its Groningen, The Netherlands, and Brisbane, Australia facilities.
PR Newswire

Evonik IPO suspended


Reuters

Lonza has completed the installation of a new GMP clean room in Houston, Texas, for its vaccines and gene therapy business


Lonza

Piramal negotiating to acquire Cambridge Major

Piramal Healthcare is currently in negotiations to acquire Cambridge Major for around $200m. The report appears to confirm earlier comments by the company. A source lose to the situation, quoted in Financial Express, said "Early stage negotiations are on and it will take a while to conclude the deal." Cambridge Major has not commented on the speculation.
Financial Express

Dalton Pharma Services will manufacture chemicals for use in Clarity Pharmaceuticals’ PET-based companion diagnostics and radio-immunotherapeutics programmes


Pharmaceutical Business Review

Wacker Biotech has completed a feasibility study to produce XL-protein's PASylated therapeutic proteins


GEN

Wednesday, 13 June 2012

Ubichem adds capacity in Hungary

Ubichem has added a new manufacturing site in Budapect, Hungary. Ubichem Pharma Manufacturing's 55,0002 facility will produce starting materials, intermediates and other fine chemical products for pharma and non-pharma applications.
Ubichem

SAFC plans to consolidate its global chiral chromatography screening and small scale purification operations at its Pharmorphix laboratories in Cambridge, UK, by July


SAFC

Evonik IPO may be cancelled


Reuters

Thursday, 7 June 2012

The US FDA has sent warning letters to eight companies for failing to register manufacturing facilities


In-pharma Technologist

Strong sales for Johnson Matthey

Johnson Matthey reported that sales for its fine chemical division rose 16% to £285m and operating profit rose 24% to £69.7m. The company said this was boosted by strong demand and supported by a very strong performance from its API manufacturing businesses. Sales in API manufacturing rose 18% to £206m.
Johnson Matthey

Tuesday, 5 June 2012

Codexis has appointed John J Nicols as President and Chief Executive Officer


Codexis

Siegfried adds sterile filling

Siegfried has acquired Alliance Medical Products in Irvine, CA, to add sterile filling services. Siegfried paid $58m in cash with a contingent earn-out consideration subject to AMP meeting defined profitability goals for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013.
Siegfried

Profits fall at Angel

Angel Biotechnology has reported revenues of £3.456m for the peered ended 31 March. Profits fell from £1.9m to £1.2m partly as a result of the expenditure prepare its Cramlington facility for its initial MHRA inspection. The company plans to continue consolidating its businesses in the coming year.
Proactive Investors