Jubilant signs $33m CRAMS deal

Jubilant Organosys has signed its second major CRAMS deal in a week. The company has signed a $33m, long-term contract with a US life sciences company. R Sankaraiah, Jubilant's Executive Director of Finance, said the company would book $250m orders in this year and $250m-$300m in the next three-four years.
Money Control

Lonza acquires Vivante

Lonza has purchased Vivante GMP Solutions to give it a foothold in the viral-based manufacturing market. Lonza said the acquisition advances its strategy to broaden its biologics custom service offering for the growing viral vaccine and gene therapy markets. Vivante, which is based in Houston, TX, produces GMP viral-based therapeutics.
Lonza

Ricerca Biosciences has successful completion of the HPLC prep purification of an API under cGMP conditions

Ricerca

CMC adds disposable manufacturing

CMC Biologics has completed the addition of a state-of-the-art biopharmaceutical disposable manufacturing facility at its Seattle, WA site. CMC Biologics has partnered with Hyclone to supply the multi-purpose, single-use facility with processing equipment, including a 100L and two 500L single-use bioreactors and disposable mixers.
Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News

Saltigo will increase prices for its 1,2,4 Triazol product range by 10% from 1 September 2010

Saltigo

Contract manufacturing revenues for Ark Therapeutics in H1 totalled £0.406m of which £0.338m was from one customer

Ark Therapeutics

Cedarlane will market and distribute Phenex's high value reagent proteins in Canada and the US

San Diego Union-Tribune

Jubilant signs CRAMS deal

Jubilant Organosys has signed a $51m, four-year research and manufacturing deal with an unnamed US company. The company is in discussions to expand the contract, which could be extended by a further five years. R Sankaraiah, Jubilant's Executive Director of Finance, said the deal takes Jubilant;s CRAMS order book over $1bn.
Money Control

Genmab is selling a cGMP biologics manufacturing facility

PharmaBioSource

Aesica invests in high containment

Aesica is investing £3m in a new high containment facility at its Queensborough, UK, site. The facility, which is due to be completed by May 2011, will enable Aesica to manufacture potent drugs typically classed as Safebridge category 3 and significantly extend its current capabilities in the formulation and packaging of liquid and solid dosage forms. In addition, the new facility will also include security measures that will ensure it can manufacture Schedule II controlled drugs such as opiates.
The Northern Echo

SAFC has extended its agreement to distribute Novozymes Biopharma's LONG R3 growth factor for industrial cell culture applications

Sigma Aldrich

EMA and FDA plan joint inspections

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the US FDA are seeking potential candidate companies for a joint GMP inspection pilot programme for manufacturers of medicinal products. The agencies are hoping to see whether greater international collaboration can help to distribute inspection capacity allowing more manufacturing sites to be monitored and reducing unnecessary duplication.
EMA

AMRI is the winner of the inaugural Pfizer Route Design Innovation Award for innovative ideas in process chemistry and large scale API production

Albany Times Union

Carbogen hinders Dishman

Dishman's Q1 turnover fell 12% to $43.2m. The company's CFO, VVS Murthy, put the fall down to reduced revenues at its Carbogen subsidiary. However, he expects Carbogen to see an overall 10% rise in sales over the full year.
Money Control

Synthetech's Q1 revenues fell 56% to $2m and the company reported a loss of $727,000 compared to a $1m profit in 2009

San Francisco Business Times

Revenues at Codexis rose 28% to $24.5m in Q2 compared to 2009, with product revenues rising 102% to $8.5m

Codexis

Senator introduces safe drug manufacturing bill

US Senator, Michael Bennet, has introduced a bill, the US Drug Safety and Accountability Act of 2010, which aims to strengthen manufacturing quality standards, enhance the US FDA’s ability to track foreign manufacturing sites, and increase the authority of FDA to make drug product recalls. Socma welcomed the introduction of the bill and thanked the Senator for "introducing this common sense legislation which will strengthen the FDA and increase public health and safety by providing additional quality controls on drugs and their ingredients."
Senator Bennet
Socma

US consumers don't trust safety of foreign manufactured drugs

A survey conducted by the Pew Prescription Project has shown that US consumers do not trust the safety and freedom from contamination of drugs manufactured overseas. 78% of those polled trusted US made drugs, but only 6% trusted those made in China, 8% India and 30% Ireland. Swiss manufactured products were trusted by 47% and Canada made 60%.
Pharma Times

Lonza and Roslin Cells will combine their capabilities to develop customised cell culture media and processes to produce of pluripotent stem cells

Genetic Engineering News

Ampac revenues rise in Q3

Ampac's fine chemicals businesses reported revenues of $20m in its Q3 ended June, compared to $15.6m in 2009, reflecting an increase in revenues from products in development. However, the operating loss for the quarter grew from $0.8m to $2.5m as a result of higher than anticipated costs associated with validating a process change for a core product and general manufacturing inefficiencies.
Ampac