Schering-Plough has lowered its financial forecasts for the second
time and unveiled a fresh round of cost cutting in an attempt to
stabilise its finances.
Australian packaging group Amcor has entered into a A$330 million
(€198m) agreement to buy Rexam's healthcare flexibles packaging
business and will also buy out Danisco and Ahlstrom's 28.1 per cent
minority stake in its...
Fisher Scientific has extended its SK5.3 billion (€573m) offer for
Perbio Science after failing to win the support of more than 90 per
cent of Perbio's investors.
A new report from Datamonitor predicts the end of the
pharmaceutical industry's blockbuster product model, pointing to a
dramatic shortfall in growth rates for billion dollar-plus products
out to 2008.
German chemicals and drugs company Bayer has said that it plans to
sell its subsidiary Walothen to Finland's Wihuri as part of an
ongoing restructuring of its portfolio.
Daicel has entered into an agreement with Thesis Chemistry in a
deal which will see the two companies collaborate in the area of
chiral process manufacturing.
Degussa follows its peers in the speciality chemicals industry by
posting weak interim results held back by currency factors, raw
material costs and lower demand.
The US FTC has taken issue with the merger between Aspen Technology
and Hyprotech in 2002, alleging that it gave the combined firm a
too-dominant position in process control software.
BASF, the world's largest chemicals company, has said that it will
expand an ongoing restructuring program in North America after
reporting lower-than-expected second-quarter sales and profits.
Bayer has reported a decline in net profits for the second quarter
of 2003, with analysts expressing concerns that litigations costs
could hold back full-year earnings.
Cambrex plans to sell off its Rutherford Chemicals business for $64
million (€56m) to allow it to focus on its human health and
biosciences activities.
KBI BioPharma, a start-up biopharma contract manufacturer, has
signed an agreement to buy a facility in North Carolina that could
be online in 6-9 months.
Cobra Biomanufacturing has signed an agreement to supply Advaxis
with clinical and commercial supplies of its Listeria
monocytogenes-based cancer vaccine.
A conference on batch process automation and asset management in
the pharmaceutical industry is scheduled to take place in Cork,
Ireland, on 22-23 October.
Italy's Recordati has said that it plans to sell off its
pharmaceutical chemical activities over the next few months in
order to concentrate on pharmaceuticals.
KS Biomedix has confirmed that it is in negotiations that may lead
to a merger and add to the mini-wave of consolidation sweeping over
the UK industry.
Argonaut sells its HPLC business to Grace Vydac as it refocuses on
supplying consumables for companies working on drug discovery.
Reports reduced losses in first half.
Pliva has continued its rapid expansion with the opening of a new
R&D facility in the USA that will carry out formulation work on
generic pharmaceuticals.
DSM reports a disappointing set of second quarter results and says
it is unlikely to meet its 2002 operating profit level this year;
the group blames weaker demand for its products and negative
currency factors. Restructuring drive...
LGC has acquired Germany's Mikromol, a specialist in pharmaceutical
impurities and metabolites used as reference materials, to create
its first non-UK lab.
The pharmaceutical industry is failing to increase efficiencies in
core areas of its business - such as clinical trials and sales -
because of an enormous pressure from investors to drive revenues,
according to Datamonitor.
The difficulties facing Lonza came into clear focus today as the
company published its half-year results, with sales down across its
custom manufacturing, organic chemicals and polymers businesses.
Chemical major BASF has expanded the range of products it offers to
pharmaceutical clients with the $65 million (€58m) purchase of
Callery Chemical from Mine Safety Appliances.
Scotland's PPL has started a mass slaughter of its flock of sheep
engineered to produce alpha-1 antitrypsin in their milk. The cull
could spell the end of the firm's ambitions in transgenic
production.
Lonza Biotec is to manufacture PEGylated antibody fragment-based
drugs for Celltech under the terms of a new agreement between the
two companies. The two companies have also reached an agreement on
a prior deal relating to Celltech's...
Danish pharmaceutical companies increased their sales to overseas
countries by 20 per cent in the first four months of this year
compared with the same period of 2002, according to Invest In
Denmark.
Chiron's has completed its acquisition of UK vaccine and drug
delivery specialist PowderJect, making it the second-largest
manufacturer of flu vaccines worldwide.
Whatman has decided to wind down the operations of its German
subsidiary Biometra, taking a £10.1 million charge in the process.
The move fends off a patent infringement challenge from Applied
Biosystems.
Caliper Technologies has been given the go-ahead by the US federal
Trade Commission for its $71 million cash and stock acquisition of
Zymark, a specialist in laboratory automation and robotics
equipment.
DSM has taken a 25 per cent interest in Nijmegen, Netherlands-based
Chiralix in move which both expands DSM's capabilities in
early-stage drug development and Chiralix' position in
stereochemistry
Microbiology specialist Biotrace has continued its expansion into
the healthcare sector with the acquisition of Denmark's Maltec,
helping it to target Scandinavia's strong pharma sector
Pfizer is considering the sale of its Pharmacia Diagnostics
business, acquired alongside the rest of Pharmacia in a $60 billion
deal that concluded in April.