Novasep's Freeport, Bahamas, and Chasse sur Rhône, Lyon, France, facilities passed FDA inspections in March and May respectively

Novasep

Currency puts pressure on Lonza

Lonza's sales fell 5% to CHF1,193m in H1 2011, with the company reporting pressures of unfavourable exchange rates. However, the company reported that it had increased its project pipeline in both chemical and biological manufacturing. Additionally the company said its capacity utilisation was around 80% for both parts of its custom manufacturing business.
Reuters

Sigma-Aldrich's SAFC business unit reported sales of $183m in Q2 2011, up 17% on 2010

Seeking Alpha

Laureate Biopharma will develop and manufacture a biosimilar product for a leading generic pharmaceutical company

Laureate Biopharma

Lonza will provide process development and scale-up agreement for the manufacture of Genesis Biopharma's autologous cell therapy product candidate

GEN

WH Partnership will provide specialist engineering support for the next phase of re-commissioning Angel Biotechnology's Cramlington facility

Angel Biotechnology

Albemarle's Fine Chemistry sales rose 31% to $184.8m in Q2 2011 and income more than doubled to $37.4m

Albemarle

Cellectis reaches Lonza milestone

Just over a year after announcing it would use its meganuclease technology to deactivate glutamine synthetase in Lonza's CHO cell line, Cellectis bioresearch claims it has succeeded. Lonza said the achievement will enable it to make further improvements to its GS Gene Expression System and shorten development timelines.
Bioscience Technology

Lonza will produce phase II clinical trial material for Immune Pharmaceutical's human immunoglobulin monoclonal antibody, bertilimum

Immune Pharmaceuticals

Johnson Matthey's Fine Chemicals Division sales rose 15% to £70m in its Q1 2011

Johnson Matthey

Lonza has started its buyout of Arch

Forbes

Ajinomoto and Granules announce API jv

Ajinomoto OmniChem and Granules India Limited have established a joint venture, Granules-OmniChem Private Limited, to provide contract manufacturing of APIs. The company, which will be based in the Pharmacity SEZ zone in Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. It will start construction of its $20m manufacturing facility in November 2011, and expects to start production by January 2013.
India Infoline

Mark Griffiths has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer at Carbogen-Amcis

Pharma

Lonza to buy Arch

Lonza has made an approved offer of $1.4bn for Arch Chemicals. The deal will give Lonza a word-leading presence in microbial control and will reduce the companies dependence on contract manufacturing.
NYT Deal Book

FDA approves 20 drugs in H1

The US FDA approved 20 new drugs in the first half of 2011. Last year it approved 21 in the whole year. While the agency said that it was meeting more than 90% of approval deadlines, there is a feeling amongst some commentators that this approval rise in approval rate is a blip possibly a clearing of a backlog of applications.
Wall Street Journal

Angel Biotechnology has signed a revised contract to manufacture stem cells for ReNeuron's stroke clinical trial

Business Insider

OctoPlus will provide process development and manufacturing for a Danish pharmaceutical company

Octoplus

Recipharm spins out biologics facilities

Recipharm has established a holding company for its biologics development facilities in Sweden and the UK. The shareholders in the new company, Cobra Biologics Holding which will continue to trade as RecipharmCobra Biologics, are its management team, Zentricity Holding and Recipharm. Recipharm has decided to concentrate on its core business activities.
Recipharm

Unions call for Lonza talks

The Unia and Syna unions, which represent workers at Lonza's Visp site, have called for talks with the company, following its decision to extend working hours. The unions said the move was unacceptable and an affront to personnel and unions. Unia said staff should not have to work longer to ensure Lonza turns a profit and called for immediate talks on the issue.
Swiss Info