Lonza will produce phase I clinical material for Eclipse Therapeutics' novel cancer therapeutic antibody, ET-101 at its facility in Slough, UK

Lonza

Scott Martin has been promoted to vice president, Fine Chemistry, at Albemarle

Albemarle

Girindus partners with Axolabs

Girindus has partnered its oligonucleotide manufacturing with Axolabs analytical capabilities to offer a complete service solution for therapeutic oligonucleotides from early discovery and preclinical development through clinical stages and into commercialisation.
GEN

Siegfried Rhein will invest $20m to expand its generic drug production capabilities in Queretaro, Mexico

CNN Expansion

Boehringer Ingelheim will manufacture preclinical and phase I supplies for Xencor's biosuperior monoclonal antibodies

Pharmaceutical Business Review

Jubilant HollisterStier signs four contracts

Jubilant Life Sciences subsidiary, Jubilant HolisterStier, has signed manufacturing contracts, worth over $90m in total, with four life sciences firms. The company will manufacture sterile parenteral products for the US and European markets.
Economic Times

Codexis appoints interim CEO

Codexis has appointed Peter Strumph, Senior Vice President and Business Head of Pharmaceuticals, as interim CEO following the surprise decision by Alan Shaw to step down. The company said Shaw resigned to pursue other interests, but will will continue to serve as a special advisor to the Board of Directors.
San Francisco Business Journal

Asymchem adds capacity

Asymchem has completed phase 1 of a new large scale manufacturing facility in Dunhua, China. Operating under the name Jilin Asymchem Laboratories Co. Ltd the $20m facility includes 5,000-20,000L vessels for the limited cGMP manufacture of raw materials to intermediates. A second phase, which will be completed in July 2012 will add a second module for a total capacity of 532m³. The third phase, due online in October 2012, will increase capability through GMP manufacturing of APIs and API intermediates. Asymchem plans a further $12m investment in Dunhua between 2012 and 2014 for additional downstream commercial projects.
Pharmaceutical Business Review

OmniChem expands in Belgium and India

OmniChem has commissioned a new facility for the development and manufacturing of HPAPIs and intermediates in Wetteren, Belgium. The new facility has increased OmniChem's capacity in class 5 HPAPIs by 11,200-liter reactor capacity. Additionally, OmniChem's Indian joint venture Granules-OmniChem has broken ground on a $20m manufacturing facility in Visakhapatnam.
OmniChem
Business Standard

Chemoxy spins out from Dow

The UK facilities of Dow Haltermann Custom Processing have been spun out from Dow Chemical with a management buy-out backed by the Royal Bank of Scotland. The business, which has sites at Middlesborough and Billingham in the UK, has been renamed Chemoxy International, the company's former name. The firm will employ about 80 people an is seeking to grow by 5-10% this year. Managing director, Ian Stark, said "we are going to be more agile as an SME and we’re looking to bring back on line some plants that were idle a few years ago."
Speciality Chemicals

Carbogen Amcis' Bubendorf, Switzerland API manufacturing site has successfully completed a routine US FDA inspection

Contract Pharma

Lonza to form South African JV

Lonza has confirmed it is negotiating with the South African Government to establish a $206m JV, called Ketlaphela, for the establishment of a manufacturing facility for anti-retroviral medicines. The discussions are still at an early stage and nothing has been signed. South African Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor has said production should start in 2016 and create 2200 jobs. The South African Industrial Development Corporation and other state institutions will invest $129m, Lonza will invest more than $64m and South Africa's state chemical company, Pelchem (Pty) Ltd., will contribute land and facilities worth $13m. Lonza said that the discussions are still at an early stage and nothing has been signed.
Reuters-Yahoo

SAFC continues to grow sales

Full year sales at Sigma Aldrich rose 10% to $2.5bn, with the SAFC business growing 9% during the year. The company said it expected the SAFC business to show low to mid single digit growth in the first half of the year and low double digit growth in the second half of the year as additional capacity comes on line in China and Taiwan.
Seeking Alpha

Revenues rise for AMPAC

AMPAC reported a 55% increase in fine chemicals segment revenues to $21.5m in its Q1 2012. Dana Kelley, AMPAC vice-president, CFO and treasurer, said that revenues from antiviral products were the primary contributor to the rise as the 2012 first quarter included no antiviral product revenue. Joe Carleone, AMPAC president and CEO, said the company had recently agreed to produce controlled substances for a large pharmaceutical customer and will soon be conducting a full scale validation of a chemical product in this area.
Seeking Alpha

Lonza's new factory concept

Lonza is establishing a new manufacturing concept at its Vis, Switzerland site. The company said that continuous flow and microreactor technologies will allow it to offer increased flexibility and capacity for the development and manufacture of APIs. Lonza added that the facility will be ready for full operation in June 2012.
Manufacturing Chemist

Contract manufacturing sales up for AMRI

Contract manufacturing sales at AMRI rose in 2011. The company reported a rise of 4% to $36m for its development and small scale manufacturing and 20% to $95.6m for large scale manufacturing.
AMRI

Sales rise at Cambrex; looks to acquire

Cambrex reported a sales rise of almost 6% to $67.1m in Q4 2011, which the company attributed to increased demand for an API manufactured under a long-term supply agreement, a recently approved innovator product, higher sales of generic APIs, and higher volumes of controlled substances and products utilising its drug delivery technology. Cambrex CEO, Steven Klosk, said the company is looking to add further capabilities in generic finished products.
In-pharma Technologist

Hikal's Jigani, Bengaluru, API manufacturing facility has successfully completed its third US FDA audit

Pharmabiz

Codexis looks to future

Codexis' full year 2011 product revenue rose 49% to $49.0m as a result of increased sales to both generic and innovator pharmaceutical customers. Codexis President and CEO, Alan Shaw, said that in 2012 the Codexis' customers received FDA and EMA approvals for three new on-patent drugs using the company's technology. Shaw said he expects to see improved sales growth in 2012. Additionally he said Codexis is expecting the FDA to approve the manufacturing process for blockbuster pharmaceutical product, which has approaching $4bn in sales. He sees additional growth from increased volumes of generic atorvostatin using the company's technology and more companies using their products in their process development.
Codexis

New contract for Angel

Angel biotechnology has signed three new manufacturing contracts with Materia Medica Holding, worth £4.5m. Angel will start the projects at its Edinburgh facility before transferring later this year to its refurbished, larger site at Cramlington, UK.
The Herald

Aesica to expand HPAPI capabilities

Aesica is to upgrade its API manufacturing capabilities to enable the company to manufacture high potency APIs at commercial scale. Following the upgrade, Aesica will be able to manufacture SafeBridge Category 3 API and formulated products from pilot to commercial scale at two of its sites in Europe.
Aesica

OctoPlus will provide formulation development and manufacturing for Ferring Pharmaceuticals

Pharmaceutical Business Review

Q3 sales rise at Johnson Matthey

Johnson Matthey's fine chemicals division reported sales up 15% to £62m in its Q3 ended 31 December 2011. The company said its API manufacturing business performed well aided by sales of a new API for the treatment of drug addiction. Looking forward Matthey said the underlying performance of the division is more predictable and it continues in line with expectations.
Johnson Matthey

SAFC gets BioReliance

Sigma-Aldrich has completed its acquisition of BioReliance from Avista Capital Partners for $350m. BioReliance's services will be folded into Sigma-Aldrich's SAFC custom manufacturing and services business unit.
Maryland Daily Record