This month’s roundup of new equipment, technology partnerships, and other news includes items from Ajinomoto, Elligo, Syneos, ACD/Labs and other companies.
This month’s roundup of new equipment, technology partnerships, and other news includes items from Ajinomoto, Elligo, Syneos, ACD/Labs and other companies.
Ajinomoto Bio-Pharma Services has announced an expansion of its existing agreement with AstraZeneca to include drug product manufacturing. The expanded scope now includes aseptic fill finish services at Ajinomoto’s San Diego, California facility, as well as small-molecule manufacturing services in Belgium.
“We are excited to expand our manufacturing agreement with AstraZeneca and to support them with additional service offerings," said Magnus Busch, global account manager for Ajinomoto Bio-Pharma Services. “This expanded agreement builds on our commitment to be a leading, trusted, innovative partner to our clients.”
Syneos Health has announced it will combine its pharma technology solutions with Medable’s cloud-based platform. The move is intended to create new decentralized capabilities to customers, increase trial diversity, and improve patient access and experience in virtual trials.
“The demand for decentralized clinical trials has steadily increased as sponsors search for innovative and meaningful ways to drive efficiency, reduce cost and alleviate patient burden,” said Maria Fotiu, executive vice president for decentralized solutions with Syneos. “Our collaboration with Medable will identify opportunities to capture data – real time – to better deliver customized, decentralized solutions.”
ACD/Labs has introduced Spectrus JS, reportedly the first commercially available, browser-based application for processing 1D and 2D nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data. Because it is OS-independent and vendor agnostic, users can use it to process NMR data from any computer with access to the internet.
“Accurate NMR spectral prediction is the foundation of any advanced NMR data analysis, and our NMR Predictors are universally recognized as the best in the market,” said Dimitris Argyropoulos, NMR business manager for ACD/Labs. “We are providing the NMR community with the capability to use ACD/Labs’ state-of-the-art processing algorithms in a modern, easy to use interface that is accessible by any device with a browser and Internet access.”
Global contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) Vetter and Rentschler Biopharma have announced the expansion of their strategic collaboration. Initiated in mid-2020, the partnership is intended to combine the companies’ capabilities and expertise to bring products to clients and patients more quickly.
“The formation of the mutual agreements and alignment on a client approach were foundational steps that both Vetter and Rentschler Biopharma identified early in our exploration of this strategic alliance,” said Vetter managing director Peter Soelkner. “We look forward to the new progress that this step will facilitate.”
ACG has announced its Karton X pharmaceutical packaging machine has received a 2021 iF Design Award. The recognition program is intended to salute all types of products that demonstrate achievement in innovation and design.
Karan Singh, managing director of ACG, said, “We understand that during times like these, our partners in the global pharma industry need reliable, safe, and intelligent devices to help them make the world healthy again. We stand alongside them to serve this cause, and this award is testimony to an approach of solving problems through collaboration and taking an integrated approach to technological development.”
Elligo Health Research has announced an alliance with N. Harris Computer Corp., via its Sidus Insights subsidiary. The two organizations reportedly will collaborate to improve access to clinical research for underrepresented patient populations within healthcare systems.
John Potthoff, CEO of Elligo Health Research, said, “This partnership further expands our network — over 150m patients strong — and furthers our mission to make the latest medical health breakthroughs accessible to all populations.”
Lonza has expanded its Nucleofector line with the 4D-Nucleofector cell transfection platform. The machine reportedly includes an updated core unit and intuitive software.
“The Nucleofector technology has been used for more than 10,000 peer-reviewed publications since its introduction 20 years ago, clearly demonstrating its importance for this community of successful researchers,” said Nina Novak, product manager for Nucleofection technology for Lonza. “The next-generation 4D-Nucleofector Platform brings UX improvements that make the system even more intuitive and easy to use, firmly securing its place as a core method in cell-based research.”
Tools4Patient has released data demonstrating how its Placebell technology predicted placebo response in a recent Phase II randomized, controlled trial for osteoarthritis. The company applied a chronic-pain model built by meta-analysis including data from 211 placebo-treated patients from several studies; results showed a reduction in data variability between 20% and 35% percent in both placebo-treated patients and all patients.
“These results highlight the impact and applicability of Tools4Patient’s approach in clinical development and allowed the sponsor to make thorough conclusions about the study results,” said Alvaro Pereira, chief scientific officer of Tools4Patient. “With our Placebell product, for the first time, we are now able to gain insight into placebo response in drug treated as well as placebo treated patients.”
Clinical Ink has announced it has deployed a total of 500 unique electronic clinical outcome assessment (eCOA) scales and assessments in 82 languages. The company’s eCOA scales and assessments solutions include the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), Vineland-3, Bayley-III, and others that have never been implemented effectively in an electronic format.
“A significant share of the clinical trials industry is still relying on paper and pencil cognitive tests when electronic versions are available — versions that support not only better data quality but reduced timelines and cost,” said Clinical Ink CEO Ed Seguine. “Our complex eCOA scales and assessment implementations represent a new standard of trial execution simplicity and efficiency.”
TraceLink has released Opus, an open supply network intended to give users a low-code environment for developing multi-enterprise applications that digitize a variety of processes between organizations. The technology is intended to simplify the digital transformation of product, information, financial, and workforce flows for streamlined supply chain decisionmaking.
“There is a growing need for an open system for building and running interoperable, integrated multienterprise information ecosystems," said Shabir Dahod, TraceLink CEO and president. “The digital networks powered by Opus create the foundation for companies to build their Industry 4.0 digitalization strategies that combine customer-centric agility with the collective intelligence of an entire industry.”