NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE PHARMACEUTICAL FINE CHEMICAL AND CUSTOM MANUFACTURING SECTOR

Monday 31 January 2011

Recipharm sells Oxford facility

Recipharm has sold its decommissioned manufacturing facility in Oxford, UK, to Oxford BioMedica for £1.9m. Recipharm acquired the facility when it bought Cobra Biologics in 2010. Oxford BioMedica will recommission the plant over the next 12 months to provide production capacity for its proprietary LentiVector gene delivery technology.
Recipharm

Lonza is to repurchase one million shares during the next year

Lonza

Phoenix Chemicals has made 36 people redundant at its Wirral, UK, site and 7 redundant at its Annan site

Wirral News
Dumfries and Galloway Standard

New contract as Angel raises cash

Angel Biotechnology will provide pre-GMP services for Pathfinder Cell Therapy's novel cell therapy. Additionally, the company has raised £1.9m in a placing of 553,435,720 ordinary shares.
Angel Biotechnology
Angel Biotechnology

Pfenex will develop a scalable production process for a key Malaria antigen in a $3.1m subcontract from SAIC

Xconomy

Wednesday 26 January 2011

Lonza robust in 2010

Lonza reported sales in its custom manufacturing business unit increase almost 2% to CHF1.4bn in 2010. The company said this growth was driven primarily by improved capacity utilisation in large-scale biological manufacturing as a result of new product introductions, especially in the second half of the year. The company has almost 300 products in its chemical pipeline and about 260 in its biological pipeline and reported capacity utilisation rates of around 75% for both businesses. Lonza also said that the build-out of its large scale mammalian biopharmaceutical facility in Singapore is on track, with start-up targeted in Q3 2011. Additionally, TL Biopharmaceuticals, its joint venture with Teva, has commenced a clinical phase-I trials with its first biosimilar product.
Looking forward, Lonza expects to continue to benefit from increased outsourcing of manufacturing and development by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, which combined with stronger product pipelines, improved capacity utilisation and a more appropriate cost base, provides the company with a good platform for a solid performance in 2011.
Reuters

The Grangemouth-based fine chemicals business KemFine, acquired by Aurelius in November, has been renamed CalaChem

Scottish Enterprise

Strong 2010 for Albemarle fine chemicals

Albemarle's fine chemicals business unit reported record income in Q4 2010, up 39% on 2009 to $26.3m. The company said the improvement was due primarily to favourable pricing and mix as well as favourable sales and production volumes, which were partly offset by higher variable input costs. The unit saw sales of $569m in 2010 up 13% on 2009. Mark Rohr, Albemarle's Chairman, President and CEO, said the company was looking at a number of potential bolt-ons for the business unit.
Seeking Alpha

Tuesday 25 January 2011

Codexis will supply biocatalysis screening products and services to Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma for use in producing therapeutics in its pipeline

San Francisco Business Times

FDA publishes drug manufacturing guidance

The US FDA has published an industry guidance on the general principles and approaches that FDA considers appropriate elements of process validation for the manufacture of human and animal drug and biological products, including APIs or drug substances. The FDA says the guidance aligns process validation activities with a product lifecycle concept and with existing FDA guidance, including the FDA/International Conference on Harmonisation guidances for industry.
FDA

Monday 24 January 2011

ICIG launches WeylChem International

WeylChem International has been launched by International Chemical Investors Group to market the groups custom and toll manufacturing capabilities. In addition, WeylChem will focus on supply chain optimisation between ICIG' fine chemicals businesses in Germany, France, Italy and the US.
WeylChem

Monday 17 January 2011

Rentschler Biotechnologie will be the sole manufacturer of Faron Pharmaceuticals recombinant human interferon beta-1a

In-pharma Technologist

Phoenix enters administration

Phoenix Chemicals has told its workforce in Annan, Scotland, and Bromborough, England, that it has entered administration. The company is seeking ways to keep its two facilities open.

ShangPharma starts cGMP facility

ShangPharma has begun operations at its new facility in Fengxian, China. The cGMP multi-purpose pharmaceutical development and manufacturing facility includes a pilot plant with reactor capacities ranging from 200L to 3000L as well as reactors for high temperature, cryogenics, highly toxic and pressurised reactions, including hydrogenation.
Seeking Alpha

Thursday 13 January 2011

Aurobindo sells subsidiary to Sinochem

Sinopharm is acquiring a 51% stake in Aurobindo Pharma's Chinese subsidiary, Aurobindo (Datong) Bio Pharma Co. Ltd (ADBPL). Sinopharm will later acquire a further 29.5% stake, reducing Aurobindo's holding to 19.5%. Aurobindo will receive $50m for the stake, $23m of which is a repayment of a loan to the subsidiary. Aurobindo's senior manager for investor relations, Tathagato Roychoudhary, said "in the second round of stake sale, Sinopharm will infuse cash into ADBPL to relocate its factory to expand capacity as regulated by the Chinese government".
India Infoline

Wednesday 12 January 2011

DSM signs enzyme supply agreement with Codexis

DSM Pharmaceutical Products will use Codexis enzymes for commercialisation of sustainable enzyme-based pharmaceutical manufacturing routes developed by its InnoSyn route scouting services.
Codexis

Peakdale Molecular has received the French CIR Research Tax accreditation

Peakdale

Tuesday 11 January 2011

Raptor engages Cambrex and Patheon

Raptor Pharmaceutical has engaged Cambrex to manufacture of the API and Patheon to produce the commercial product for its DR Cysteamine its nephropathic cystinosis treatment.
Raptor Pharmaceutical

Euticals acquires Archimica

Italian API manufacturer Euticals SpA will acquire Archimica from TowerBrook Capital Partners. The sale price was not disclosed. Towerbrook acquired the Archimica business from Clariant in June 2006 for approximately €70m. Archimica has approximately 550 employees at six production sites in Italy, France, Germany, US and UK.
Wall Street Journal

Monday 10 January 2011

Lonza's Borgas wary of strong SFr

Lonza's CEO Stefan Borgas has warned that the strong Swiss franc will be a major challenge for the Swiss economy in the next five years. He added that products made in Switzerland will become less competitive on a global scale.
Reuters

Helsinn has sold its Irish plant to IS Pharma for €4.4m

Reuters

Cambrex has appointed Shawn Cavanagh as Executive Vice President and COO, leading Cmabrex's innovator pharmaceutical contract manufacturing operations

Cambrex

AMRI consolidates drug discovery operations

AMRI has merged its discovery R&D and discovery chemistry departments to form a Global Drug Discovery organisation. The company will combine its discovery chemistry and biology functions into a single unit at its locations worldwide.
RTT

Sunday 9 January 2011

The EMA is concerned about the quality of non-EU manufactured APIs

In-Pharma Technologist

Dishman facility due online in April

Dishman's facility in Shanghai, China, is expected to begin commercial operations in April. Dishman's CFO, VVS Murthy, says the $10m facility will eventually contribute about $20-25m/year in the future from contract manufacturing of APIs for European clients.
DNA India

Alexander Wessels is the new President and Chief Executive Officer of DSM Pharmaceutical Products

DSM

Recipharm has set up its pharmaceutical development services business as an individual company, Recipharm Pharmaceutical Development

Recipharm

The FDA approved 21 new drugs in 2010

Wall Street Journal