IT solutions firm Merge Healthcare has won the race to buy eClinical specialist etrials, beating previous suitor Bio-Imaging Technologies whose takeover bid collapsed on Monday.
At BIO 2009 Symyx was promoting its new CDMO offering, which it believes meets a “real need in the industry” and can save clients time and materials by leveraging its prior knowledge.
GE Healthcare hopes its new modular validation platform (MVP) will change the way drugmakers think about how they create new plants and bring existing manufacturing facilities up to code.
The ICH has published a question and answer (Q&A) document to clarify some of the common issues encountered by pharma companies implementing Q8, Q9 and Q10 guidelines.
Canadian CRO MDS Pharma Services (MDS) is to sell its Phase II-IV trial business to US counterpart INC Research for $50m (€35m) and focus on providing discovery and early clinical development services.
Sparta Systems is establishing operations in Hong Kong as part of efforts to expand in Asia-Pacific (APAC), where it believes there is a growing market for quality and compliance management.
SAFC is seeking to improve its large-scale supply of pharma raw materials through a partnership with Cherokee Pharmaceuticals, which will use its expertise to ensure the products meet cGMP standards.
Industrial automation specialist Emerson Process Management has won the contract to help Swiss life sciences group Lonza design its new biopharmaceuticals plant in Singapore.
US scientists at Harvard University’s Rowland Institute have described a way of making large numbers of controllable nano-propellers that, despite being at an early stage of development, may one day be used to deliver drugs.
German glass making giant Gerresheimer has opened a new packaging plant in Danyang, China, further indicating its plans to grow in the world’s fifth largest pharmaceutical market.
PRA International has opened a drug safety centre in São Paulo, Brazil, expanding its presence in Latin America and bringing its array of services to a new market.
BioTrove is taking aim at the drug development sector with its RapidFire 300 absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination (ADME) screening system that, it claims, can analyse samples in a fraction of the time taken by traditional HPLC.
Power outages cost India $9.2bn (€6.5bn) in 2008, according to a report, with the disruptions causing direct losses in numerous sectors, including pharma and biotech.
Decision News Media, publisher of Outsourcing-Pharma.com, in-PharmaTechnologist.com and 15 other websites serving the international food, nutrition, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries, has been acquired by the leading UK business-to-business publisher...
Targeted Molecular Diagnostics (TMD), which was acquired by Quintiles in November 2008, has launched two mutation assays to help clients develop more effective, personalised cancer treatments.
Schlafender Hase has launched a new version of its text verification tool (TVT) that supports all major languages, allowing pharma packagers in all regions to check labels prior to shipping.
US Patient recruitment specialist BBK Worldwide has set up a unit in Osaka, Japan to improve enrolment rates for studies in the country and help local pharma and biotech firms cut costs.
Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines unit of French drug major Sanofi Aventis, has received a reference strain of the H1N1 swine flu virus from the US CDC and expects to complete work on an industrial “seed stock” in the next two weeks.
GSK and Pfizer’s HIV joint venture (JV) may be subject to an investigation by UK competition watchdog the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), according to various media reports.
Outsourcing-Pharma provides its latest round up of movements in the pharmaceutical outsourcing sector, including an executive reshuffle at PPD that caused share price to dip.
Contracting giant Patheon has started legal action to restrict the voting rights of private equity group JLL Holdings, in the latest move of an increasingly acrimonious takeover battle.
US CRO Ockham Development group will start providing customers with data capture and analysis solutions developed by etrials under a new, five year licensing agreement.
Stiffer penalties for counterfeiters could be counterproductive in less developed countries (LDC) and “entrench the corrupt symbiotic relationship between counterfeiters, lawmakers and officials”, according to a report
FIT Biotech has entered into a partnership that will see its GTU MultiHIV DNA plasmid developed using ImmunoVaccine Technologies’ DepoVax delivery tool, which uses liposomes to encapsulate a target antigen and adjuvant.
Sanofi Pasteur has landed what it believes will be the first of a series of orders from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to produce H1N1 vaccines.
At BIO 2009 Cobra Biomanufacturing explained to Outsourcing-Pharma its maxXpress service, its thoughts on expanding to commercial scale and the recent deal with KAHR Medical.
There has been “tremendous interest” in Fate Therapeutics’ Catalyst programme, which gives access to induced iPS cell technology as part of collaborative relationship between numerous companies.
Biotechs use smaller CROs as much as larger service providers and regard patient recruitment speed as by far the most important characteristic, according to a report.
Neuland has posted a 35 per cent growth in operating profits in its 2008 financial year, despite the pricing pressures and economic environment that have affected the industry.
Outsourcing-Pharma met with Charlesson to discuss the company’s business model, which sees its in-house activities benefit from revenues, experience and contacts generated by its preclinical service offering.
CMO Richter-Helm BioLogics has achieved a 60 per cent increase in yield using technology from Upfront Chromatography, which demonstrated its system at BIO 2009.
Peru’s National Center for Quality Control (CNCC) has attained ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accreditation, furthering its safety efforts and becoming one of the few Latin American countries to achieve this.
Singapore’s prudent spending means it can view the economic crisis as an opportunity, according to an executive director of its EDB, using saved funds to progress beyond its struggling rivals.
Portuguese contract manufacturing organisation (CMO) Hovione plans to invest €2m ($3m) in a new R&D unit in the capital Lisbon, as expansion space at its active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) plant in Loures is limited.
The Norway-based company was spun out of Bergen University a few months ago but its tools, which it believes give more information on a target than any other currently available tech, have already attracted interest from biotechs in Europe, the US and...
HEM Pierre Vimont, Ambassador of France to the US, was at BIO 2009 talking about the measures his nation have taken to attract biotechs, including the introduction of the "most favourable R&D tax in Europe".
Canadian contract services group Patheon will roll out a cell based assay offering that it says will help the biopharmaceutical sector advance the development of the next generation of biologic drugs.
UK CRO Quotient Bioresearch has bought a clinical research facility in Edinburgh, Scotland, which in conjunction with an existing unit in Nottingham, England will serve as a base for its new Quotient Clinical unit.
Fine chemicals firm Minakem believes that manufacturing capacity added by its newly acquired API plant in Dunkirk, France will reduce costs and help it compete on a global scale.
Piramal Healthcare’s new clinical trial manufacturing, packaging and distribution centre in Northumberland, UK will help pharma industry customers to “build cost saving at an early stage,” according to European strategic manager Martin Hunt.
In a session chaired by at BIO 2009 John Lechleiter, CEO at Eli Lilly, speakers discussed patent reform, biosimilar bills and why certain options on the table could be a "stake in the heart" of the biotech industry.
Freeman Technologies, which showcased its FT4 Rheometer at Achema in Frankfurt, Germany, last week, says pharmaceutical powders are complex systems that require analysis of multiple parameters.
WuXi PharmaTech’s operating income fell by 25 per cent in Q1, in part because of an 81 per cent drop in revenues from manufacturing, but the company reconfirmed its 2009 financial guidance.
Telstar unveiled a range of products at Achema 2009 in Frankfurt, Germany last week, including its compact unloading system that forms part of its automatic vial loading system and aims to minimise installation space.
The increasingly global clinical trial sector demands more effective ethical and regulatory scrutiny according to a study published in the latest edition of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
