Contract manufacturing news in brief
all recently announced new contract manufacturing news.
BioLife Solutions has outsourced the manufacturing, warehousing, and customer order fulfilment duties of its products to Bioserv Corporation. The firm develops hypothermic storage and cryopreservation media products for cells, tissues, and organs and BioLife's chairman and CEO Mike Rice said that outsourcing "supports our strategic plan to grow sales while focusing on continual scientific innovation in preservation media development and contract research". "Having Bioserv warehouse our inventory and fulfil orders will also enable us to reduce production and other operating expenses and allow us to commit additional resources to expanding our sales and scientific teams, which will better position BioLife to execute its growth plan". Auriga Laboratories has allocated a manufacturing and supply agreement with Mikart for a new product that is expected to launch on the US market during the middle of 2008. The drug is for mild to moderately severe pain, which combines the effects of a centrally acting analgesic, codeine, with a peripherally acting analgesic, acetaminophen, in a "unique" strength previously not available. Codeine/acetaminophen combinations are one of the most frequently prescribed product classes in the US with over 74m prescriptions written by physicians, generating estimated sales of over $830m in the country annually. This past week, Laureate Pharma has announced that it has entered into a contract manufacturing agreement with ImmunoGen to make the huC242 antibody used in the production of its huC242-DM4 tumour-activated prodrug (TAP) compound, now in Phase II clinical testing. ImmunoGen's proprietary TAP technology uses tumour-targeting antibodies to deliver a potent cell-killing agent specifically to cancer cells. Terms of the manufacturing agreement were not disclosed. In other news, injection ampoule manufacturer Cenexi is now offering a new global service to biopharma firms who wish to outsource their solvent supply chain, a process which the firm describes as "expensive, complex, and time consuming". The firm is offering four sizes of injectable ampoules (1ml, 2ml, 5ml and 10ml) as well as three types of solvents (sodium chloride, lidocain and water). Meanwhile, in a recent interview with Swiss publication Handelszeitung, Lonza CEO Stefan Borgas, said that the company will be ready to make new acquisitions from the second half of 2008 in order to drive growth. "As a small company, you can't sit on too much money for too long," he said.
