This month’s news on technology, partnerships, expansions, and more includes items from IQVIA, Almac Group, Signant Health, Lonza, and other key companies.
This month’s news on technology, partnerships, expansions, and more includes items from IQVIA, Almac Group, Signant Health, Lonza, and other key companies.
Trial technology specialist Signant Health has updated its SmartSignals Telemedicine platform with the intent of optimizing remote and decentralized trial operations. The updates are intended to help clients meet ever-changing customer needs, industry demands, and global regulatory requirements.
“Release 6.0 includes important strategic updates that continue to position Signant SmartSignals Telemedicine as a leading platform for video-enabled engagement between sites and patients, specifically adapted for use in clinical trials,” said Andrew Walker, director of product management for the platform. “With these latest enhancements and investments, we are well positioned to address the increasingly decentralized clinical research landscape.”
IQVIA has been named the 2022 Marketplace Healthcare and Life Sciences Partner of the Year by Snowflake, a data cloud technology providre. IQVIA reportedly was recognized for leveraging the company’s data cloud for its Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution, enabling clients to quickly access searchable global healthcare information.
“IQVIA and Snowflake’s collaboration brings together health and life science’s leading analytics assets,” said Avinob Roy, IQVIA’s vice president and general manager of global information management. “The combination of these technologies provides clients with faster insights that drive healthcare forward and accelerate improvements in healthcare outcomes.”
Pharma services provider Two Labs has announced the addition of its Medical Affairs and Communications service. The newly launched service is geared toward the needs of small and emerging biopharma and biotech manufacturers.
"When we looked at what our clients were needing, we heard over and over that the medical affairs and communications services that were offered to them just weren't at the right size or speed for a small, emerging company," said Howard Miller, Two Labs CEO. "Working with these kinds of companies is what Two Labs thrives on, so we saw an immense opportunity to provide our clients with even more value. We already know how to build tailored strategies for these kinds of manufacturers, so once we could get the right people in place for this specific service, we were ready to hit the ground running.”
Contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Almac Group has announced the 100,000-square-foot expansion of clinical supply operations at its North American headquarters in Souderton, Pennsylvania. The $65m USD expansion reportedly boosts the facility’s capacity by 60%, with added cold and ultra-low storage and just-in-time processing capabilities to support advanced therapeutic medicinal products (ATMPs) and biologics.
Robert Dunlop, president and managing director for Almac Clinical Services, said, “Drug development and clinical trials continue to evolve across the world, with sponsors expanding their pipelines to focus on biologics, vaccines and advanced therapy medicinal products. Almac is at the forefront of building supply chain expertise and capacity for this evolution; we are committed to investing in our clients’ future challenges and are delighted that this expansion provides us with a stronger ability to service our growing customer base.”
Pharma manufacturing specialist Lonza reportedly has expanded the range of particle engineering services offered at its Monteggio site with the introduction of X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) capability. This rapid analytical technique is intended to provide additional information about the polymorph and solid-state properties of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).
Salvatore Mercuri, Lonza’s associate director of new product introduction and MSAT, commented, “The implementation of XRPD provides additional analytical information, highlighting differences in the solid state of materials before and after micronization and determining whether additional processing is needed. The XRPD improves our ability to detect solid state changes induced by the micronization process early in development and allows the problem to be properly addressed before the process is defined; this will ensure that our processes continue to obtain stable products suitable for further processing and formulation.”
Switzerland-based manufacturer Octapharma has installed a customized Schreiner MediPharm labeling system, to be used for marking small batches of its vials and infusion bottles. The semi-automatic dispensing system was ordered to help meet the company’s need for a fast, precise solution for labeling small quantities of a wide range of containers flexibly, fast, and at consistent quality.
Brigitta Nehrer, Octopharma’s production management and deputy head of visual inspection and packaging operations, said, “We are able to label all products from the smallest vials to large bottles efficiently at high and, above all, consistent levels of quality. Compared to previous manual application processes, this reduces the workload of our employees noticeably; as a result, handling of small batch sizes has been professionalized and become clearly more economical."
Confluent Medical Technologies has opted to partner with Kinaxis on the digitation and planning of its supply chain, to help increase flexibility, planning accuracy, and inventory management. The CDMO will use the company’s RapidResponse to manage its entire supply chain.
Jeffrey McCoun, Confluent’s vice president of global supply chain, said, “Remaining agile to global disruption while being able to plan accurately on a large scale, is important for us as a company and our customers. Kinaxis’ platform aligned with our businesses needs and we are excited to work with them on our digital supply chain transformation.”
Shimadzu Europe GmbH has launched its IRXross Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrophotometer. The mid-level FTIR model reportedly provides favorable performance, including an optimal signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio, resolution, measurement speed and ease of use.
According to the manufacturer, the enhanced S/N ratio enables analysts to obtain high-quality data in less time than it usually takes. With reported P-P values of 55,000:1 for one minute of integration, the IRXross is said to deliver ultra-high sensitivity measurements. In addition, users achieve high-resolution 0.25 cm-1 measurements.
Trial technology companies H1 and Lokavant have announced a collaboration using automated intelligence on data and analytics efforts. According to the partners, Lokavant will provide performance data on global trial sites and principal investigators from thousands of studies to supplement H1’s existing Trial Landscape clinical trial repository.
“The trial performance data supplied by the Lokavant-H1 partnership empowers enhanced analytics capabilities and data insights which will help clinical teams access the right investigators to run their trials,” said Ariel Katz, H1 CEO and co-founder. “We see a natural symbiosis with Lokavant to put the power of H1 Trial Landscape in the hands of clinical researchers who are bringing new hope to patient populations around the world.”
Processing and packaging equipment provider MG America is introducing the Cariba C221 cartoner, an intermittent motion horizontal unit reportedly capable of producing up to 120 cartons per minute. The machine is geared toward pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and cosmetics packaging applications.
“In a pharmaceutical manufacturing landscape that increasingly demands functional flexibility, the Cariba C221 offers unsurpassed versatility in its cartoning class,” said Claudio Radossi, president of MG America. “We look forward to showcasing it, as well as several other packaging and processing solutions, at this year’s PACK EXPO.”
