Nokia, SAP and G&D are forming a company to provide anti-counterfeiting services which will draw on the firms’ respective expertise in mobile phones, supply chain technology and encryption.
inVentiv Clinical Solutions' new Clinical Global Alliance will help meet industry demand for rapid access to “concentrated patient populations” according to CEO Michael Hlinak.
Quintiles is collaborating with Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London to establish a 30 bed Phase I site which will help meet demand for early-stage research conducted in patients.
US headquartered Unilife is targeting pharmaceutical companies with its new Unifill RTF safety syringe and product range and has begun seeking international trademarks.
Australia-based CROs, state government and a clinical trails network are collaborating with a Japanese company to encourage businesses to outsource preclinical and early-stage research to Queensland.
Increased focus on international markets, soaring demand for finished dosage forms and improved capacity usage helped India-based CMO Granules posting record revenues.
Portuguese CMO Hovione has bought an aseptic spray-drying line from US firm Acusphere and says that the demand for the technology is increasing as drug firms aim to boost bioavailability.
Globalisation and “heightened awareness and scrutiny of clinical trials” in the wake of the Northwick Park, UK incident, where some patients suffered multiple organ failure, have had a significant impact on study insurance, according to a MD.
Comparative effectiveness research (CER) represents a “historical market opportunity”, according to a VP at Quintiles who explained that pharmas that do the work will be “properly rewarded for their innovations”.
Health Decisions is “effectively franchising” its clinical trial model to other CROs to create a network of partners that it believes will offer “great flexibility” to clients, according to its COO.
Encorium has abandoned plans to sell its Finnish unit, Encorium OY, citing its new strategic focus and recent contract wins as the basis for the decision.
Environmental and safety matters concern pharma “less than they should” when outsourcing to Asia, according to the CEO of Ash Stevens who believes there are long term benefits of using US-based companies.
Swedish CDMO Recipharm’s International Environmental Award helps emphasize the drug industry’s wider role in society, according to company chairman Lars Backsell.
Swiss healthcare services giant Lonza has withdrawn its offer for Canadian CMO Patheon, citing value considerations, rejection of the bid by JLL and the availability of alternatives.
A spectrum of systems could eventually replace animal testing and provide a more ethical and economical route through preclinical, according to Kate Darley, business development manager at Kirkstall.
Indian CRO Siro Clinpharma has ramped up clinical trial manufacturing capacity at its facility in Mumbai in response to growing demand from pharma and biotech firms.
ChemDiv’s subsidiary Chemical Diversity Research Institute (CDRI), based in Moscow, Russia, will carry out development work on a range of HIV antivirals on behalf of new drugmaker Viriom.
The US arm of packaging giant Schott has added ready-to-fill (RTF) glass syringe manufacturing capacity at its facility in Lebanon, Pennsylvania in a $14m (€9.4m) expansion designed to meet growing demand.
Arch Pharmalabs is continuing its push to serve innovative pharma by adding simulated moving bed (SMB) technology, becoming the first in India to offer the offer the system for plant scale API manufacture.
Lonza says that to the Indian market was a key motivation for its acquisition of Simbiosys Biowares India preclinical cell and molecular biology assets.
World Courier has opened investigational drug storage facilities in South Africa and Australia, a move it says is in response to growth in the regions' clinical trials markets.
Reaxa will set up an Indian subsidiary to manage supply chain, commercial scale production and application development for its growing number of customers in the country.
MDS Pharma Services’ Central Labs division is to be acquired by Czura Thornton, a private investment group that owns Chiltern, for approximately $8m (€5.4m) as part of the CRO’s repositioning.
NextPharma Technologies has added clinical trial services to its US offering to meet what product development services MD Sean Marett described as growing demand for single source outsourcing solutions.
Quintiles and Cerner are combining their “unique sets of experience and expertise” to improve the efficiency of late phase research, the market for which exceeds $1bn (€677m), according to a SVP at the CRO.
We look ahead to CPhI 2009 which takes place in Madrid, Spain next week and will showcase the world’s leading ingredients, contract services, machinery and biotech companies.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and other pharmas concerned by parallel trade have been given encouragement by Europe’s highest court which said the EC must reconsider the company’s Spanish sale conditions.
Symphony Metro Pharma Solutions and HP Solutions have created a new application that, they claim, can help drug marketeers identify activities with the greatest revenue potential.
US firm 3M Drug Delivery Systems has set its sights on the Asia-Pacific region, with a new lab in Singapore which, it says, will help it better serve both local and international markets.
DHL is investing $15m (€10.2m) in its logistics infrastructure in Asia, increasing capacity in India to meet demand for supply chain services that are in compliance with stricter regulatory and quality requirements.
Following a “significant increase in demand” GVK Biosciences has partnered with Quantitative Solutions (QS) to develop and market clinical trial outcome databases, which they believe can improve drug development.
GSK and Walvax have entered into a long-term joint venture (JV) to serve the Chinese vaccine market, with the big pharma transferring technology to enable local production and building a manufacturing plant.
Despite the government’s “aggressive” promotion of generic drugs, pharmaceutical spending in France will continue to grow, according to new analysis by Business Monitor International (BMI).
US life science firm Sigma-Aldrich has received a Michael J Fox Foundation (MJFF) grant to create knockout-rat models of Parkinson’s disease (PD) to improve preclinical drug development.
Pharmatek has enhanced its preclinical and early stage clinical GMP supply capabilities by installing Capsugel’s Xcelodose system, becoming the first CDMO on the West Coast, US to have the equipment.
CROs believe that finding the right principal investigators is the hardest part of recruitment, according to a survey that adds that 80 per cent of respondents would prefer to reach enrolment goals 10 per cent quicker than cut costs by 20 per cent.
Rexam has merged its Pharma, Primary Packaging and Prescription units into a new Healthcare division to keep pace with the increasingly globalized drug manufacturing industry's regulatory demands.
Hungarian drugmaker Gedeon Richter will use Phase Forward’s Clintrial software package to manage its study programmes under a deal signed late last week.
