Thursday, 28 October 2010
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
Swiss Franc and regulators hit Lonza
Lonza said currency exchange to the Swiss Franc was having a impact despite solid sales in Q3. In its Custom Manufacturing business, Lonza said its capacity utilisation and project pipelines continue to increase. In its chemicals manufacturing Lonza has almost 300 projects in the pipeline and is seeing utilisation of almost 75%. In biological manufacturing Lonza has about 240 projects and capacity utilisation just over 75%. The company said the overall positive outsourcing trend it is seeing is counterbalanced by ongoing volatility due to more stringent drug approvals by regulatory authorities, especially in chemical custom manufacturing.
Reuters
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
Fine chems sales grow in Albemarle Q3
Albemarle's fine chemicals business showed sales grow 7% to $138.4m in Q3 2010. The company said this was due primarily to higher volumes and improved pricing.
Albemarle
SAFC sales grow in Q3
Sales at Sigma-Aldrich's ice chemicals business unit, SAFC, grew 12% to $167m in Q3 2010. The company said this was partly due to improved growth in the sale of bulk chemical products for development and manufacturing. Rakesh Sachdev, Sigma-Aldrich's SVP, CFO and Chief Administrative Officer, expects SAFC sales in Q4 to continue to be strong, but said he expected the comparison to last year will be less favourable than earlier quarters as a result of strong sales of adjuvants for the H1N1 vaccine, which occurred in the fourth quarter of 2009. Jai Nagarkatti, Sigma-Aldrich's Chairman, President, and CEO, said that in Q3 SAFC's pharma sales grew in the US but fell in Europe.
Seeking Alpha
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
Monday, 18 October 2010
Reaxa spins out antibody tech
Reaxa has spun out its antibody drug purification technology business. The new company, ADC Biotechnology, will use IP licensed from Reaxa and aims to deliver significant reduction in manufacturing costs for the new generation of cancer drugs based on antibodies.
Manufacturing Chemist
Thursday, 14 October 2010
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Almac invests in biocatalysis
Almac is investing $4m in broadening its biocatalysis R&D expertise. The company said the investment "will be used primarily to focus around discovery of new biocatalytic platforms that can be rapidly implemented and scaled delivering cost effective processes to chiral intermediates".
Almac
SAFC complete Jerusalem expansion
SAFC has completed the expansion of its fermentation capabilities in Jerusalem, Israel. The 5000m2 facility, which is expected to begin production during October 2010, will focus on niche fermentation of APIs and bulk drugs, producing secondary metabolites (antibiotic-like molecules), cytotoxins and large-molecule proteins. 3000m2 of the new facility has been designed to be Biosafety Level 2 compliant which provides the company the capability for manipulation of human pathogens.
GEN
Monday, 11 October 2010
BASF adds microreactors
BASF has added two microreactors at its Ludwigshafen, Germany, site to manufacture chemical products on a small scale. One reactor can produce samples of up to about 20 kilograms, and the other can manufacture quantities ranging from one to 50 tonne. BASF said the microreactors operate continuously and are used for reactions that require high pressure or release high levels of heat. The continuous mode of operation and the short reactor residence time of the reaction media ensure end products of consistently high quality.
BASF
Elan launches manufacturing business
Elan Drug Technologies launched its Manufacturing Services business at CPhI. The new business provides drug product optimisation, scale-up and commercial scale manufacturing of solid oral dosage forms to pharmaceutical companies.
Elan Drug Technologies
