Sales fall at Dottikon

Dottikon reported H1 sales fell by 14% year-on-year to CHF30.8m and a net loss of CHF2.7m. The company said it had reached its "prospective bottom" and had ended short hours working.
Dottikon

Strong sales for Johnson Matthey

Johnson Matthey's Fine Chemicals division reported sales 16% higher at £142m in the six months ended 30 September. The company said its return on sales fell slightly as a result of the impact of a restructuring programme at Macfarlan Smith. Johnson Matthey is planning to use its Conshohocken, US, facility to manufacture intermediates and final products at lower cost and higher efficiency, enabling the company to rationalise global production and secure new business which could not have been targeted previously.
Johnson Matthey

OctoPlus will manufacture an additional drug product for an existing customer

OctoPlus

SAFC has commenced conformity testing for the manufacturing process for Oncolytics Biotech's Reolysin

Oncolytics Biotech

Aesica opens potent products plant

Aesica has opened its £3m manufacturing facility for potent products in Queenborough, Kent, UK. Aesica said the new facility will significantly enhance and extend its capabilities in terms of formulated products and the packaging of solid dosage forms. The new facility gives Aesica the capability to manufacture products classified as SafeBridge Category 3 and Schedule II controlled drugs such as opiates.
Kent Online

Lonza has priced its CHF350m bonds to refinance loans for the acquisition on Arch

Lonza

UK companies receive government support

Aesica Pharmaceuticals, Piramal Healthcare and Shasun Pharma are to share £2m of funding from the UK government's Regional Growth Fund with two other companies. The companies will use the funding to expand their international activities.
News Post Leader

French fine chemicals companies Groupe Novasep and Minakem have denied rumours in Les Echos that Minakem is to acquire Novasep

Speciality Chemicals

Manufacturing revenues up for AMRI

AMRI reported a flat Q3 2011 with sales of $50.2m, however sales for its manufacturing services rose. AMRI's development/small-scale manufacturing revenue was up 8% to $9.2m and large-scale manufacturing revenue increased 17% to $25.7m.
AMRI

Cobra acquires Unitech

Cobra Biologics has acquired Unitech Pharma Group and its bio-production facility in Matfors, Sweden. The company said the acquisition is part of its strategy to expand its service offering. The Matfors facility will which add a 600L clinical and commercial microbial GMP production capacity, commercial aseptic fill/finish and lyophilisation capability to Cobra's portfolio.
Outsourcing Pharma

Strong Q3 sales at Cambrex

Cambrex reported that sales in Q3 2011 rose 18% to $58.2m including a 7% rise due to favourable exchange rates. The company said that higher volumes of an API for a customer who experienced a disruption in its supply chain for most of 2010, higher volumes of controlled substances, products utilising its drug delivery technology and a recently approved innovator product were the main reasons for the rise. These were partially offset by lower pricing across several product categories, lower sales of generic APIs and lower custom development shipments.
Cambrex

Piramal Pharma Solutions has added antibody drug conjugate capabilities at its Grangemouth, UK, facility

Outsourcing Pharma

The Chinese FDA plans to commence an overseas plant inspection programme later this year

In-pharma Technologist

Arlington Capital Partners is seeking a buyer for its portfolio company Cambridge Major Laboratories

Financial Times

Ark Therapeutics will provide full manufacturing and related services to support the development of the University of Glasgow’s Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences' gene-therapy programme

Ark Therapeutics

Evonik has acquired the drug delivery and cGMP development and manufacturing facility from Surmodics for $30m

In-pharma Technologist

Chemie Uetikon acquired by Barclays and management

Barclays Private Equity has acquired a majority shareholding in CU Chemie Uetikon from CPH Chemie + Papier Holding AG. Barclays, which has acquired 90% of the Lahr, Germany-based company, said it and the company's management will pursue a consistent growth strategy in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and nutrition industries.
Uetikon

Capacity utilisation up at Lonza

In its Q3 2011 business update Lonza said its underlying business appears on track to deliver growth through 2011. The company said that capacity utilisation in its pharma-facing custom manufacturing businesses remains high - about 90% for biologics and about 83% for chemicals. The company said it still faces challenges from the strength of the Swiss Franc, raw material headwinds and continued competition in life science intermediates.
Reuters