A new human vaccine to be used in the case of a flu pandemic has
gained approval in the EU. The Novartis vaccine, Focetria,
will be manufactured containing the offending virus should the
World Health Organization's warning system...
Clariant has cut its ties with the life sciences industry and will
no longer offer custom manufacturing services in this arena after
the sale of the last piece of its Lifesciences division.
Do-Coop Technologies, an Israeli company that uses nanotechnology
to create an equivalent of intracellular water as a medium for
enhancing existing chemical and biological reagents, reactions and
processes, has announced two "significant...
An online database detailing information on all manufacturing and
importation certificates and authorisations issued within the
European medicines network has been launched by the European
Medicines Agency (EMEA).
Amylin Pharmaceuticals is expanding significantly on the US
manufacturing facility it is building in West Chester, Ohio for a
long-acting version of its injectable diabetes drug Byetta
(exenatide).
Construction has finally begun on Bristol-Myers Squibb's (BMS) new
biologics manufacturing facility in Massachusetts, with the company
upping its original investment estimates for construction from
$660m (€485.7m) to $750m.
SAFC Pharma, the contract manufacturing arm of Sigma-Aldrich, has
announced it has completed the construction of two protein active
pharmaceutical ingredient (API) facilities at its US manufacturing
site.
Prosonix and Bath University in the UK have won the Royal Society
of Chemistry's (RSC) Innovation award for the development of a tool
that enables the manufacture of crystalline pharmaceuticals of
specific sizes.
Dutch company OctoPlus has extended its rights to the PolyActive
delivery technology used in its lead drug candidate Locteron, based
on interferon alfa.
Roche gave an update on its manufacturing of influenza drug Tamiflu
(oseltamivir) today, saying that while it had reached its target
capacity of 400 million doses a year, demand is running much lower.
French company Roquette has been awarded a US patent for a
dissolve-in-the-mouth drug delivery technology that makes use of
its novel StarLac excipient.
Denmark's Novozymes has set up a dedicated business unit in the UK
to make and sell ingredients that support companies wanting to
produce biopharmaceuticals without using animal-derived
constituents.
Reports of a €200m expansion at Sanofi Pasteur's production plant
in Rouen, France, have come hot on the heels of news that the US
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the company's
vaccine to protect humans against...
Pro-Pharmaceuticals is preparing to submit a New Drug Application
(NDA) for its lead product candidate, Davanat, as a functional
excipient that promises to hike the efficacy and cut the side
effects of cancer drugs.
Canadian contract manufacturer Patheon has announced its plans to
restructure its Ontario network of drug manufacturing facilities in
order to improve its profitability.
UK firm SkyePharma last week announced that the US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) has accepted a filing for the extended release
formulation of partner GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) drug Requip
(ropinirole).
An experimental flu vaccine produced in insect cells could be a
potential money-saver for pharma firms, and has proved just as
effective as vaccines produced using conventional egg-based
techniques.
A thin-film delivery system that looks like a postage stamp and
dissolves rapidly on the tongue could give new momentum to Adams
Respiratory Therapeutics' portfolio of prescription and
over-the-counter medicines (OTC) for the...
Covance is seeing the high potential of the booming market for
biomarkers and has decided to devote an entire expert team to
support clients with biomarker-related services.
Active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) specialist ScinoPharm has
been assigned a drug master file (DMF) number for its anti-cancer
ingredient docetaxel, the first such designation for the API in the
US.
Kyowa Hakko Europe is to increase prices across its range of
L-amino acids by ten per cent as of April 1, in an effort to stave
off margin deterioration and ensure long-term availability of the
ingredients.
Researchers have created a new strain of wheat with an inbuilt
resistance to devastating scab blight which infects wheat heads -
reducing crop yields as well as market value and quality.
With a new drug on the market and its Massachusetts plant at
capacity, British drug maker Shire is actively looking to buy more
biomanufacturing space in the US.
Drugs containing pseudoephedrine and ephedrine could soon be
reclassified as prescription-only the UK, in proposals drawn up
last week by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory
Agency (MHRA).
Amino acid manufacturer Ajinomoto Aminoscience announced that
increasing raw material and energy costs have driven the company to
increase prices of its L-Arginine products by $1/ kg.
Johnson Matthey's metal scavenging system, Smopex, is designed to
remove precious metals at high speed from solutions and active
pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).
Biotechnology firm Codexis has launched its Codex biocatalyst
panels, which promise to increase R&D and manufacturing
productivity while reducing cost.
Materia's metathesis platform continues to excite the
pharmaceutical industry as they follow their recent license to
Merck with a license to Aileron Therapeutics.
UK-based firm BioProgress has developed novel tablet cores that
mean pills which were previously very difficult to coat can be
reformulated and easily coated using the company's innovative
TabWrap technology.
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has until April 2007 to reply
to a Citizen's Petition (CP) filed by Orchid Chemicals in response
to accusations of 'evergreening' related to Wyeth's re-formulated
Zosyn (piperacillin/tazobactam),...
US Democrats spearheaded by Henry Waxman intend to re-table a
stalled piece of legislation that would allow US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) approval of generic biodrugs, which they claim
would result in cost savings for patients...
Pfizer's latest cutbacks will provide a new outsourcing opportunity
for contract manufacturing organisations (CMOs) in low-cost
destinations as the drug giant announces plans to double its amount
of drug production outsourcing.
A team of researchers in the UK have come up with a novel drug
delivery system using pollen-based microcapsules to encapsulate the
active ingredients, opening up whole new avenues for oral delivery
of injection-based drugs.
Microbiology specialists Oxoid have added a new growth medium
product to their catalogue of microbiological culture media, for
use in aseptic process simulations.
New French research into biodegradable polymers is opening up the
door to controlled release treatments for a broader range of drugs,
potentially doing away with traditional delivery methods of a
variety of drugs.
A new player has entered the pharma formulation development
services arena, offering technologies used in the food industry to
improve drug palatability.
Russian researchers have developed a new way of sourcing a widely
used cardiovascular drug using an ecologically friendly and
water-based extraction method, which could yield three-fold cost
savings over conventional approaches.
Canadian firm SemBioSys Genetics last week announced that its
proprietary plant-produced insulin has been shown to be
indistinguishable from human insulin, opening up a whole new
potential source of the hormone.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Janssen's
new drug Invega (paliperidone); the first new prescription drug for
the treatment of schizophrenia since 2003.
The once hyped antisense sector of the pharmaceutical industry has
again proved a disappointment after one drug in development was
refused approval and another was scrapped.
Dr Reddy's Laboratories has boosted its ability to serve Western
pharmaceutical markets with an increase in its manufacturing
capacity for drug formulations.
Roche has invested $20m in a new technology that has the potential
to dramatically enhance the delivery of subcutaneous drugs by
acting like a 'molecular machete'.
