in-PharmaTechnologist.com’s periodic round-up of employment developments in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry includes news on Abbott, Pfizer, Gilead and Clarcor.
San Antonio-headquartered manufacturing firm DPT Laboratories has won a long-term contract to produce stocks of CPEX Pharmaceuticals’ candidate intranasal insulin product Nasulin for clinical trials.
IndiaSoft Technologies, which is headquartered in the city of Pune
in Maharashtra state has won the contract to distribute Performance
Fluid Dynamics' (PFD) DynoChem productivity software to drug
manufacturers in the region.
US technology specialist Honeywell International says that new
features of its POMSnet manufacturing execution system (MES) can
help pharmaceutical firms reduce production errors.
Continued weakness in the market for products used in the
manufacture of biologic drugs was the main reason why Millipore
experienced a 'challenging' quarter, according to CEO Martin
Madaus.
Pfizer's plans for a new €190m manufacturing plant in Shanbally,
Ireland suggest that the firm is intent on fulfilling its pledge to
become a "top five biologics producer in the next eight
years."
At this week's Informex show in New Orleans, experts at a packed
out session discussed the potential of up-and-coming continuous
processing technologies and posed the question: is batch processing
yesterday's technology?
Vapourtec has made two new additions to its Flow Chemistry platform
available as the company make headway in an emerging field, which
aims to speed up laboratory processes in drug discovery.
Processing specialist Sartorius Stedim Biotech today announced a
cooperation and supply deal with systems manufacturing firm Paul
Mueller Company for the US market, with a production facility in
Pennsylvania set to close as a result.
NPIL Pharma last week told workers at its former Pfizer plant in
Morpeth, UK that the company is considering hiving off jobs in a
bid to maintain the site's viability.
Boehringer Ingelheim has been forced to announce the planned
closure of a UK manufacturing site as a result of pricing pressures
that mean the firm is unable to produce unit dose vials (UDVs) at
the site cost-effectively.
Novartis has hooked up with the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) to fund a project aimed at 'revolutionising'
pharmaceutical manufacturing and doing away with traditional
batch-based production techniques.
German packaging company Gerresheimer has received recognition for
its packaging expertise again after winning the German Packaging
Award the second year in a row.
German pharma firm Stada has acquired Russian pharmaceuticals group
Makiz in a deal worth up to €135m, giving the company a sturdy
foothold in the growing Russian market and enhanced in-house
production capacity.
In the latest episode of the Viracept contamination case, the drug
is now at risk of losing its marketing authorisation across Europe
while the dangers posed by the chemical contaminant are established
and manufacturer Roche rectifies...
Siemens is offering software support for the implementation of
Process Analytical Technology (PAT) in the pharmaceutical industry
with the launch of its Sipat package.
As single-use technologies become more and more popular for use in
biopharmaceutical manufacturing, Pall is following market demands
bolstering its product line by adding a number of disposable
products to its portfolio.
Technology and services provider Althea Technologies has stepped
closer to a significant increase in manufacturing capacity as it
announces the completion of the first phase of construction at its
new San Diego facility.
UK drug goliath GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is ramping up drug production
at its Polish site as it prepares to more than double the number of
markets the plant will supply.
Biotech contract manufacturer Diosynth and PDL Biopharma have
extended their agreement for the commercial supply of PDL's heart
attack treatment Retavase (reteplase), a move that signals the end
of manufacturing issues PDL experienced...
Icelandic pharmaceutical Actavis has snapped up an Indian
manufacturing plant in a move to take advantage of lower
manufacturing costs for exports to the US and Europe.
Biologic drug manufacturing is slowly starting to take off in
Singapore and is expected to be a key component of the country's
drug manufacturing activity in the future.
Baxter is expanding its lyophilisation capacity at its German
facility to support future growth of its contract manufacturing
business for anti-cancer drugs.
A liquidation sale will be held to offload unwanted manufacturing
equipment at a plant formerly owned by Pfizer - much of which is
new and was never turned on or certified.
Drug maker Eli Lilly has completed the first phase of a $560m
(€446m) expansion of its biotech facility in Indianapolis, US, in
order to match the growing number of biological drugs in its
pipeline.
Firms engaging in both in-house and contract pharma manufacturing
generally display inferior performance compared to manufacturers
conducting only in-house production, according to new research.
Pfizer CentreSource has decided to outsource the manufacture of some of its active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) to two Asian contract manufacturers and intends to work with the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) during the process.
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.
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.
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.
Millipore launch its version of a tangential flow filtration (TFF)
device for the filtration of monoclonal antibodies and other
therapeutic proteins that form an integral part of the drug
discovery process and development cycle.
New guidelines for the import and manufacture of medical devices in
India have now come into effect, aimed at increasing world
confidence in medical devices made in the region.
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,...
Biotechnology firm Invitrogen has opened a new facility in New York
which can make its Advanced Granulation Technology (AGT) media
totally free of animal origin components while addressing key
bottlenecks in drug production.
A new e-learning course promises to cover everything one needs to
know about demanding current good manufacturing practice (cGMP)
topics such as standard operating procedures (SOPs).