Injection molder and contract manufacturer Tech Group is relocating
its Grand Rapids plant to a new molding facility in nearby Walker,
Michigan, which will be expanded to cope with the high demand for
medical devices and components.
In a deal worth up to $19.9m (€15.6m), US drug delivery company
Inyx has acquired contract pharmaceutical packaging firm Pharmapac,
seeking to enhance its secondary-packaging capabilities for a wide
range of dosage forms.
Indian biopharmaceutical company Wockhardt has signed a deal with
Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) to establish
a special economic zone (SEZ) in Aurangabad, India, in order to
expand its manufacturing capabilities.
Following numerous manufacturing failures, Discovery Laboratories
believes it has resolved the stability issues that have plagued
Surfaxin, its experimental respiratory treatment for infants, and
is now seeking a meeting with the...
A majority stake in Irish biotechnology contract services firm
Archport has been snapped up by German-based Chemie Uetikon as the
bio-outsourcing market heats up.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued new advice to
aid manufacturers in developing safe and effective cell-based viral
vaccines, hoping it can modernise America's manufacturing network
and speed up production.
The pharma industry's leading radio frequency identification (RFID)
vendors recently gathered to share expertise and evaluate the
potential of their RFID technologies in a living laboratory, in
their quest to produce a market...
Drug developing services provider Aptuit has acquired the
pharmaceutical services division of technology firm EaglePicher,
enriching its active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and drug
substance manufacturing offerings.
With the first clinical trial of its cell culture-based seasonal
influenza vaccine commencing in the US, Sanofi Pasteur has
demonstrated the production scale potential of a cell line in a
successful bioreactor run of 20,000L.
Software firm Ross Systems and supply chain company SupplyScape
have announced a partnership to provide a software solution that
allows pharmaceutical manufacturers to track their product through
the supply chain, meeting regulatory...
Chemir Analytical Services, the new owner of Gateway Chemical
Technology, has renamed the custom chemical analysis business
IQsynthesis in a revamp effort.
The UK subsidiary of Nicholas Piramal (NPIL) is working on a new
catalyst-based racemisation technology called SCRAM that delivers
significantly improved process yields in the production of chiral
amines and alcohols, cutting cost...
Ferro Pfanstiehl Laboratories has commissioned a new validated
current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) supercritical
fluid-based particle engineering pilot facility, offering sizing,
purification and formulation services to its...
Automation equipment provider Contax has increased productivity and
efficiency in one of AstraZeneca's packaging lines by installing a
new specialist conveyor.
Bilcare, India's largest research-based pharmaceuticals packaging
company, has bought UK-based clinical trials services (CTS)
provider DHP in a bid to build itself up to be one of the few
players in this sector with global servicing...
Moving from egg-based production of vaccines to the use of
cell-culture technologies in existing manufacturing plants is
cheaper and quicker than building new facilities to handle a flu
pandemic within the next five years, new research...
Most drug companies are not planning to increase the level of sales
and marketing IT they outsource over the next 3-5 years - a sign
that this niche segment may be bucking the wider pharmaceutical
industry outsourcing trend.
Canadian firm Bioxel has manufactured the first industrial-scale
current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) batch of its key
intermediate for docetaxel, the active pharmaceutical ingredient
(API) of Sanofi-Aventis's blockbuster...
Catalyst specialist Reaxa has launched the latest flight of
additions to its range of metal scavenging products for pharma
process applications which can be used in both batch and continuous
processing.
Cardinal Health has been given the green light from the US Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) to start manufacturing the first
commercial drug at its new sterile facility in North Carolina.
Nabi Biopharmaceuticals has obtained the exclusive rights to use a
plasma protein purification technology from ProMetic Life Sciences
in the large-scale development and manufacture of its hyperimmune
products, cutting production costs...
New workflow technology can go a long way in ensuring security and
traceability of data transfer prior to print in the pharmaceutical
industry, avoiding errors that can potentially lead to
life-threatening misinformation.
Kemwell has sealed the deal on the purchase of Pfizer's Swedish
manufacturing plant and at the same time secured a long-term
contract manufacturing agreement with the drug giant.
Successful technology transfer and effective management can help
avoid disappointment with contract manufacturing arrangements,
which often fail to live up to pharmaceutical company expectations.
A small spin-out company formed by the University of Colorado has
been awarded a $850,000 (€670,000) grant from the US government to
develop a dry powder inhalable version of Nabi's investigational
injectable vaccine for nicotine...
A good selection process, with a realistic set of selection
criteria is essential when looking for the right contract
manufacturing partner, according to a new Datamonitor report.
Biotechnology firm Codexis says it has reached an important
development milestone in its effort to design a biocatalytic
process to produce a key intermediate for a Schering-Plough drug,
reducing manufacturing costs and environmental...
The majority of pharmaceutical manufacturers who have adopted the
lean manufacturing model are not satisfied with their results
according to a new survey, raising questions about the efficacy of
a system popular in the automotive...
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has formed a partnership with ChemoCentryx
worth $1.5bn (€1.2bn) which will provide the company with access to
selected targets from one of the broadest pipelines of
chemokine-based therapeutics in the biotech...
A survey has revealed that the pharmaceutical and biotech industry
are currently dominating the outsourcing scene in Europe,
accounting for a quarter of all sub-contracting activity within the
EU.
Capgemini has received a new five year outsourcing contract to
provide IT services to ensure the smooth sailing of pharmaceutical
company Astellas US, newly-formed after a recent merger.
The recovery that has taken packaging and processing machinery
company IMA to profitability in 2006 has continued, helped by new
opportunities in the biotech sector and a strong growth in
generics.
Biopharmaceutical firm Altus has asked contract manufacturer Althea
to produce Phase III quantities of a crystallised formulation of
human growth hormone (hGH) which can be administered subcutaneously
weekly instead of daily.
Strong demand for anti-cancer cytotoxic active pharmaceutical
ingredients (APIs) has led Nicholas Piramal (NPIL) Pharma to
upgrade infrastructure and hire more staff at its high potency
substances (HPS) facility in Grangemouth.
Despite its consolidation, the competitive consumable sector still
offers potential for rapid growth and better profits in the
biopharmaceutical industry, while contract bioprocessing services
will be increasingly in demand, according...
Rexam, the world's largest beverage can maker, has bought Indian
pharmaceutical packaging firm Truepack for £5m (€7.3m), hungry for
a slice of the country's growing pharma market.
For the first time Merck has opened the doors of its
under-construction manufacturing plant in North Carolina to public
officials, boasting it will eventually contribute about two-thirds
of its annual live-virus vaccine production.
Buoyed by lucrative biodefense contracts, Emergent BioSolutions has
showcased a new large-scale vaccine production facility in Michigan
which it will use to make Biothrax, the only vaccine approved in
the US for the prevention of...
A cartridge shortage that forced Amylin and Eli Lilly to ask 40,000
physicians in the US to stop prescribing their injectable diabetes
drug Byetta to new patients has come to an end thanks to a boost in
production by contract manufacturer...
Dendreon has finished the construction of its New Jersey
manufacturing facility which it will use to produce its
investigational active cellular immunotherapy for advanced prostate
cancer, hoping to be the first to bring it to patients.
US manufacturers must stop shipping prescription drugs in bulk
containers, leaving pharmacies to repackage them, as this practice
makes the supply chain more vulnerable and leads to medication
errors, the Healthcare Compliance Packaging...
Pennsylvania environmental regulators have accused Merck of
hampering their investigation of a chemical discharge from its West
Point facility that resulted in a major fish kill on the local
creek and threatened the water supplies...
Agricultural firm Embrex has installed its in ovo delivery
system and egg remover at the production facility of Shenzhen
Neptunus Interlong, believed to be the largest and most advanced
human influenza vaccine manufacturing plant...
India's potential to further boost its already dominant role in
global generics production, as well as an offshore location of
choice for contract manufacturing, presents an opportunity worth an
estimated $48bn (€38bn) in 2007,...
More problems at Patheon's Puerto Rican production facilities in
the third quarter of 2006 are expected to reduce the contract
manufacturer's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and
amortisation (EBITDA) by more...
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has censured three
American national pharmacies for using the traditional practice of
compounding as a ruse in order to operate as drug manufacturers,
producing thousands of unapproved copies...
US biotech firm Genzyme has been given a green light by the US Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin manufacturing its kidney
drug at its Waterford facility in Ireland.
Drug manufacturers are increasingly turning to specialised
providers of analytical services for the solid state
characterisation of their formulations, seeking answers to
processing issues, drug delivery challenges and even protecting...
The excipients used in a protein formulation and the method of
production can impact not just the physical and chemical stability
of biologics but also their in vitro and in vivo
performance, cautions Durect's executive director...
The global demand for virgin activated carbon is tipped to rise
five per cent per year to reach 1.2m metric tons by 2010, fuelled
by increased use in the pharmaceutical sector.
Designed as a next generation cellulose-based virus removal filter, Planova™ S20N has demonstrated robust filtration performance for challenging molecules...
Bispecific antibodies (BisAbs), which can bind to two distinct antigens, are prone to high levels of aggregate (10-30%), challenging traditional platform...
Various options exist for freezing biopharmaceutical bulk material, but selecting the most effective and efficient approach for each cold chain can be...
