Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) has invested $100m to expand its
manufacturing plant in Singapore, bringing the drug giant's
investment in this budding region to over S$1bn (€0.5bn).
Failure to get it right in designing and implementing a
manufacturing process results in the loss of time and money, but
the risk of this can be minimised if some basic organisational
steps are followed, argues Brookwood's director...
Cambrex's Q2 results show that the life sciences firm is slowly
making a comeback after being crushed by a $140.3m (€116.7m) loss
in Q4, however, it has failed to completely stem the bleed from its
Biopharma unit, blamed for...
Aldevron has announced the expansion of its Genetic Immunisation
and Antibody (GIA) facility to meet the increased demand of vaccine
screening contracts.
Nektar Therapeutics has closed its processing plant in Bradford, UK
as it shifts its focus to developing its own drug products using
its own drug delivery technology.
Most pharmaceutical companies know little about how to make
biopharmaceuticals on a large scale and so they need to develop
in-house expertise as well as outsource several steps in their
production chain, advises the head of chemistry...
Purdue Pharma is the first drug manufacturer to implement a new
software program that allows firms to order all Schedule I & II
controlled substance purchases on a single electronic form -
potentially saving up to 90 per cent...
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said it has developed a vaccine against the
H5N1 bird flu strain that can trigger an immune response at a much
lower dose than other vaccines in development.
In a controversial move, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
has given the final nod of approval to pharma companies who want to
add colourful pearlescent pigments to their drugs to give them that
"special something."
Anderson Packaging has bought 12 acres of land next to its existing
US headquarters and now plans to build another new facility to
expand its contract pharma packaging capacity by 20 per cent.
Omnia Biologics has sealed a deal to help the Aeras Global TB
Vaccine Foundation in its quest to make quantities of a new TB
Vaccine that will "fulfil all the needs of the developing
world."
Israeli biopharma firm Kamada will manufacture transferrin for an
undisclosed European pharma firm embarking on the first ever
clinical trials of a drug that includes the substance.
Chugai Pharmaceutical has decided to manufacture a modified version
of Roche's Tamiflu (oseltamivir) in a dry syrup formulation which
can be stored at room temperature after the bottle is opened,
allowing for more storage capacity...
Rentschler Biotechnologie has heralded the start of a €50m
expansion to increase its capacity to produce antibodies and
mammalian cell culture-derived proteins on a commercial scale.
Irish pharmaceutical specialist Guy & Co has been strengthened
by the recent acquisition of leading US-based pharmaceutical
packaging specialist Pharmagraphics according to its parent company
and will now be known as Pharmagraphics...
As it consolidates its manufacturing operations in the US, Watson
Pharmaceuticals has received a warning letter from the US Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) accusing it of using the wrong
ingredients in the production of capsules,...
Momentum is growing at the UK's new National Biomanufacturing
Centre (NBC) as its operator Eden Biodesign inked a second contract
at the centre - set up to establish England's Northwest as one of
the top biomanufacturing...
Labelling and packaging equipment company Advanced Dynamics has
unveiled a new machine to label the outer packaging of
pharmaceutical products in Braille, allowing companies to comply
with EU regulations.
Looking to expand its laboratory testing and consulting services,
PharmEng has acquired Rootlink Tecknic, a laboratory
instrumentation automated solution sales and service company based
in Toronto.
AstraZeneca will be using Werum's PAS-X system at its two German
production sites to collect operating data from its packaging lines
and define and evaluate key performance indicators (KPI), improving
equipment performance.
French-owned software firms Axway and Cyclone Commerce have joined
forces with US drug distribution firm McKesson to develop new and
cost-effective IT to support the pharma industry in its venture to
introduce item-level tracking...
Abbott's Kaletra, the biggest-selling drug of a class of HIV
medications known as protease inhibitors, has won the thumbs up
from the European Commission with a melt extrusion formulation
which enhances solubility, requires fewer...
UK firm PowderMed has contracted US firm Althea Technologies to
manufacture clinical supplies of its flu vaccine that can
significantly speed up production.
An enzyme-based process operated by Lonza for the production of the
major chiral building block for Pfizer's Lipitor, the world's best
selling drug, has won its designer Codexis a top green chemistry
award for its high yield,...
SR Pharma has recruited Genzyme, BioSpring and OctoPlus to
formulate and manufacture its lead RNAi therapeutic product Atu027
to good manufacturing practice (GMP) standards, as its liposomal
drug delivry system moves forward.
Technology firm Symyx has acquired Autodose, a maker of precision
powder-dispensing equipment, as it seeks to develop the next
generation of high-throughput benchtop automation systems.
As America desperately waited for its influenza vaccines, Chiron
had to deal with major quality control issues between July and
October 2005 at its troubled vaccine manufacturing plant in
Liverpool according to a US Food and Drug...
Copapharm Europe, the alliance of specialist packaging companies,
has announced "healthy" sales figures for 2005, as its
one-stop pan-European approach to the supply of pharmaceutical
packaging equipment is becoming more...
Sanofi pasteur's vaccine manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania, where
half of America's influenza vaccines are made, has been served with
a warning letter by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA),
asking for measures to...
French purification specialist Novasep has unveiled a new series of
preparative high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) columns
that are ideally suited for the purification of any amount of
product.
Boehringer Ingelheim Roxane (BIRI) has integrated Multisorb's
sorbent packets in its moisture prevention system, reducing costs,
decreasing downtime, and increasing line speed.
A Dutch trial of battery-powered radiofrequency identification
(RFID) tags in standard medication blister packages, sponsored by
Novartis, has demonstrated the benefits the technology can have for
patient compliance but also the prohibitive...
Hyclone has unveiled a new single-use bioreactor at the BioLOGIC
exhibition in Amsterdam which promises the same performance with
traditional stainless steel bioreactors but with the benefits of
single use in which all the contact...
Microsoft has awarded Pfizer with its Pharmaceutical and Life
Sciences Innovation Award for its manufacturing management system
which revolutionalises the scaling up and monitoring of active
pharmaceutical ingredient (API) production,...
Vintage Pharmaceuticals, a generic drugmaker with plants in North
Carolina and Alabama, has pleaded guilty to 19 felony counts of
producing adulterated drugs and introducing them into interstate
commerce.
As the shortage of cartridges of its injectable diabetes drug
Byetta reaches critical levels, Amylin Pharmaceuticals is seeking
to expand manufacturing capacity and is exploring a nasal spray
formulation of the medicine with drug...
The worldwide market for supply chain management (SCM) software is
tipped to grow 8.6 per cent a year to reach over $8.3m (€6.8m) in
2010, driven by the need to streamline supply chain processes and
improve productivity.
Tests have begun on a new bird flu vaccine that its US developer
MedImmune hopes will prove more effective and provide several
advantages over current injectable flu vaccines in the event of a
bird flu pandemic.
Alpharma has asked one of the largest manufacturers of bulk active
pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in China, Zhejiang Hisun
Pharmaceutical, to help it double its capacity of making
vancomycin.
Peakdale Molecular has taken the opportunity to expand its
capabilities and capacity extending the services it can provide to
further support customers' drug discovery challenges.
Millipore has unveiled new disposable Tangential Flow Filtration
(TFF) assemblies that reduce validation efforts, increase process
speed and mitigate risks.
The world's first drug made from a genetically engineered goat has
been given the thumbs up in Europe after being initially rejected
in February. The decision has reopened the door for "pharming,"
where transgenic animals...
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has urged the pharma
industry to develop preservative-free nasal sprays, however, there
is currently a vacuum of manufacturers that can fulfil such a
requirement.
Testing services and contract manufacturing firm Microtest has
announced it will invest $7.5m (€6m) in new facilities to expand
its offering of pharmaceutical and virology testing services and
fill/finish production capacity.
Biotech company Genzyme Pharmaceuticals and drug delivery firm
Brookwood Pharmaceuticals are now working together to create new
ways of delivering peptide-based drugs.
Danish biotechnology firm Novozymes has acquired Delta
Biotechnology from sanofi-aventis, looking to strengthen its
bioprocessing expertise in enzymes and microorganisms with Delta's
ability to manufacture recombinant proteins...
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...
