Developments in the pharma manufacturing space
US drugmaker Dendreon has received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance to begin making its prostate cancer treatment Provenge at its facility in Los Angeles.
The plant, in addition to Dendreon’s facility in New Jersey, gives the firm 84 workstations at which it can produce the autologous cellular immunotherapy, which is the first treatment of its kind to be approved by the FDA.
Mitchell Gold, Dendreon CEO, said: "The FDA approval of the Los Angeles facility will enhance our ability to provide Provenge to the many patients across the country who may benefit from it."
Dendreon, which is also seeking FDA approval for a facility in Atlanta, unveiled plans to begin production at a manufacturing plant it is building in Germany in 2013.
Packaging manufacturer Amcor also unveiled some facility news this week, announcing plans to invest €6.7m ($9.6m) to expand its converting plant in Singen, Germany.
The facility houses aluminum foil rolling and converting capacity, and employs 1100 people, and supplies multilayer aluminum-based packaging materials to customers all over the world in the drug and food industries.
Amcor said it will spend money on a production hall housing three additional reel slitting machines.
And finally for this week’s round-up Wyoming-based active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturer and drugmaker Cody Labs has announced plans to expand it production operations.
According to a report in the Billings Gazette Cody will invest some $2.5m in a new warehouse at its production facility to expand storage capacity in a project that will create 20 new jobs.
