In brief: pharma production around the world
developments from around the world sees Fujisawa expanding in
Ireland, Solvay partnering in Russia, Vietnam's machinery firms
undercutting competitors and a US plant purchase.
Japanese pharmaceutical firm Fujisawa has spent €17 million on a major expansion of its plant at Killorglin in Co Kerry, Ireland.The firm has spent the money on a 27,000 square foot extension to allow increased production of its immunosuppressant drug Prograf (tacrolimus).
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has awarded a loan worth €15 million to the Moscow, Russia-based Petrovax Pharm for the production of new generation influenza vaccines, reports the Interfax news agency. The funds are earmarked for the construction of a factory near Moscow in a joint project between Petrovax and Belgium's Solvay.
The production will combine antigens originating from Solvay Pharaceuticals' new cell culture technology in Weesp, the Netherlands, with polyoxidonium (PO), an immune adjuvant developed and patented by the founders of Petrovax. The annual output of 20 million doses of vaccine a year will supply the Russian and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) markets.
The EBRD said that the market for flu vaccines in Russia stands at around 16 million doses a year, and has been increasing at an annual rate of 20 per cent.
Shreya Biotech of India has announced plans to start the production of recombinant human insulin from the end of 2005, to tap into what it said was a growing global market currently weighted at 25,000kg a year. Two domestic players, Wockhardt and Biocon, already produce recombinant insulin in the country.
In Vietnam, local machinery companies are undercutting rivals and winning customers in Asian countries. The Tien Tuan Drug Production Machine Manufacturing Co has exported 10 small medicine production lines worth €770,000 to Bangladesh, according to the Vietnam News Agency. The company said that its lines are 40 per cent cheaper than equivalent ones produced in Europe. It is now aiming to export to Pakistan.
Meanwhile, the Dinh Hung Phu Automation Engineering Company has exported ten medicine bottling lines worth $100,000 (€77,000) to a customer in Thailand.
Eyetech Pharmaceuticals has bought most of the assets of Transgenomic's oligonucleotide manufacturing facility in Boulder, Colorado, for $3 million in cash and the assumption of certain equipment and facilities leases associated with the plant. The company plans to transform it into a second source for commercial-scale manufacture of the active pharmaceutical ingredient for Macugen (pegaptanib sodium injection), a treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration which is partnered with Pfizer, as well as other pipeline drugs.
