Schroder Ventures Life Sciences has raised $402 million (€344m) for
its biotechnology investment fund, providing a signal that venture
capital may at last be turning its head back in the direction of
the sector.
Baxter Healthcare of the US says it is planning a seven-year, $100
million (€85m) expansion of its parenteral contract manufacturing
services for pharma and biotech companies.
Swiss chemicals group Lonza has said that a new small-scale
production plant at its Visp site will come on stream in July and
will boost its services in the area of exclusive manufacturing of
pharmaceutical products.
Akzo Nobel's Diosynth unit has signed a multi-year contract to
manufacture and supply the active pharmaceutical ingredient for
Pfizer's growth hormone receptor antagonist Somavert. The value of
the agreement was not disclosed,...
Japanese drugmaker Eisai is planning to double the production
capacity for its two top-selling drugs - Pariet and Aricept - by
2004, with an investment of ¥9 billion (€65m).
UK firm Cobra Bio-Manufacturing has announced its intention to
undertake a placing and open offer to raise £4.65 million (€6.45m)
to fund the purchase of an additional manufacturing plant in
Cowley, Oxford.
UK company SkyePharma is expecting to achieve turnover of £100
million (€139m) in 2003, which would represent a rise of around 40
per cent over last year. However, the company has warned that the
lion's share of this total would...
Speciality chemical company Rohm and Haas has created a new
business unit, Advanced Biosciences, that specialises in the
production and purification of biopharmaceuticals. The new unit is
well placed to address the shortfall in production...
The European Commission has given the go-ahead for Germany to grant
a proposed €78 million in aid to help Merck KGaA build a new
biopharmaceuticals plant for the production of oncology products in
Jena, Thuringen.
Switzerland's Solvias AG, a specialist in scientific and technical
services and products based on synthesis and analysis, has reported
a healthy 20 per cent hike in 2002 sales to SF43.6 million
(€28.6m). The increase was driven...
US pharmaceutical major Pfizer reinforced its position as the
world's largest drug company in 2002 after putting in sales of
$29.45 billion (€25.12 bn) in 2002, a hike of 11 per cent over the
prior year, according to a new analysis...
Swiss intermediates and fine chemical company Lonza said today it
is to cut around 500 jobs mainly in Europe and the US as part of a
restructuring programme to reduce the negative effects of the
current economy on most of its business...
Netherlands-based drugs, coatings and chemical maker Akzo Nobel has
announced a €500 million divestment program and suggested that it
is unlikely to remain a player in all three of these sectors in the
long term.
Dutch life sciences company DSM has broken ground on a new site in
Montreal, Canada, set to become a large-scale biopharmaceuticals
plant. Phase one - at a cost of €100m - due for completion by 2005.
In the US this week, supplier of botanical extracts for the
pharmaceutical industry Pharmachem Laboratories announced that it
has acquired 'the largest botanical extraction facility in North
America, producing extracts for the...
Despite a testing global economic climate, sales remained steady
and earnings before interest and taxes rose for German speciality
chemicals company Degussa in the first quarter of 2003. But guarded
optimism remains for 2003.
In a bid to improve efficiency and reduce costs UK in vitro
diagnostics company Axis-Shield is to shift the manufacture of
certain products from its site in Oslo, Norway to the company's
global headquarters in Dundee, Scotland.
Operating profit for Danish enzyme company Novozymes improved
marginally in the first quarter of 2003, despite the impact of
unfavourable exchange rates. On the back of favourable developments
in net financials, the company reports...
Danish Novo Nordisk plans to break ground on a €10 million
expansion of its insulin manufacturing facility in Clayton, US. The
company has awarded the contract to BE&K Engineering and Suitt
Construction for the 19,000-square-foot...
Danish biotech company Fluxome Sciences , based at the Technical
University of Denmark, has entered a cooperation agreement with the
US biotech company Bio-Technical Resources concerning development
of optimised fermentation processes,...
The global economic downturn marked 2003 first quarter results for
Dutch based life science company DSM but strong autonomous volume
growth boosted figures to higher than 2002.
US company PPD is taking a stake in Chemokine Therapeutics, a
Canadian- and US-based biotechnology company, to continue
development of a proprietary peptide derived from a particular
chemokine that may make the peptide useful as a...
UK biotechnology bellwether Celltech has emerged victorious in the
bidding battle for Oxford GlycoSciences. OGS reluctantly gave in to
Celltech's pressure on 11 April, after the latter firm bought
additional holdings which brought...
Dutch life science company DSM reported this week that on Tuesday
three people were killed following an explosion at its Melamine
Plant 2 in Geleen, the Netherlands.
Life science company Chiral Quest this week announced that the
non-profit organisation, the Penn State Research Foundation, has
received a US patent covering the compositions of matter and use
for a series of chiral phosphine ligands...
Shareholders at Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche welcomed the
start of a new era as the company summarised recent events,
including the divestment of the vitamins business, at its annual
general meeting yesterday.
The bulk of biotech companies are firmly rooted towards the foot of
the ladder of corporate evolution. Precious few can realistically
claim to be at the top end of the evolutionary scale with full
R&D capabilities, global reach...
Dow Chemical has agreed for Dowpharma, Dow's pharmaceutical
manufacturing services business unit, to supply select, proprietary
oligonucleotides to Montreal, Canada-based Topigen Pharmaceuticals
for use in its pharmaceutical...
Akzo Nobel has opened a new powder coatings factory in Ho Chi Minh
City, Vietnam in partnership with Chang Cheng Securities, marking
the 12th powder coatings site in the Asia Pacific region for the
company.
Swiss life-science company Lonza announced on Tuesday that it is to
strengthen the production of oligonucleotides - an emerging new
class of therapeutics consisting of short nucleic acid chains
interfering in the processing of genetic...
Nabi Biopharmaceuticals saw biopharmaceutical product sales -
driven by strong growth in sales of Nabi-HB - reaching record
levels of $89.5 million (€83m) in 2002, a 22 per cent increase from
2001 levels.
Pharmaceutical and veterinary product manufacturer IVAX corporation
has acquired ChemSource, a manufacturer of active pharmaceutical
ingredients based in Puerto Rico.
German chemicals company Degussa has sold its Frankfurt/Main-based
biopharmaceutical company Zentaris to Canadian firm AEterna
Laboratories for approximately €50 million, the company said last
week. The move marks the much-talked...
French chemicals company Rhodia is to sell its UK-based brewing and
enzymes businesses to US biotech company Genencor International in
a bid to strengthen its focus on food additives.
Solvents are defined as organic chemicals that are used to dissolve components. They are used during the manufacture of drug substances and can also potentially...
Oral tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are a class of cancer drugs that can be highly susceptible to issues with solubility in the gastrointestinal tract
Various options exist for freezing biopharmaceutical bulk material, but selecting the most effective and efficient approach for each cold chain can be...