World pharmaceutical packaging demand will increase at a rate of
4.3 per cent a year to reach $22.2 billion (€17.2bn) in 2007,
according to a new report from Freedonia Group. Companies supplying
blister packaging will benefit from...
German pharmaceutical company Altana has started construction of a
€70 million manufacturing facility in Cork, Ireland. The move would
appear to refute claims that the attractiveness of the region to
the drug industry is on the wane.
BASF IT Services, one of the first units of the German chemical
major to be spun out into a separate unit, has signed an agreement
with Merck KGaA that confirms its ability to win major contracts
from companies other than its parent.
UK independent Pentagon Chemicals has made its first major
acquisition since spinning out of parent Dow Chemical in a
management buyout in 2002, in a move which bolsters its product
range and contract manufacturing capacity.
The Automation Partnership (TAP), a company specialising in the
application of robotics to pharmaceutical drug discovery and
production, has named a new chief executive to succeed Richard
Archer, who is stepping down in February.
MW Consultants, a small Irish company specialising in engineering
and construction in the pharmaceuticals industry has been acquired
by US firm Parsons Corp.
A new exhibition to be held in the spring aims to look at how
industrial biotechnology is being used to transform chemical
synthesis and other industrial processes.
The pharmaceutical industry must cut the time its drugs linger in
development and terminate less promising projects earlier if it is
to improve the efficiency and productivity of its R&D
programmes.
Schering-Plough is to cut 18 per cent of its workforce at a
manufacturing plant in Brinny, Ireland, in the face of stiff
competition to two of the firm's biologic drugs.
Dutch biotechnology company Crucell has won a major new contract
for its PER.C6 cell line technology from Aventis Pasteur, which
will use it for the development and production of flu vaccines.
Although there are some signs of an economic recovery that should
help its business, the European chemical and pharmaceutical
industry can expect to have another difficult year in 2004.
Akzo Nobel unit Diosynth has unveiled plans to cut 70 jobs at its
UK subsidiary based in Fife, Scotland, because strong competition
from Asian competitors is hitting the business.
Senior executives at LGC, a UK-headquartered provider of
pharmaceutical reference materials and analytical and diagnostic
services, are gearing up for a secondary buyout that will help it
to accelerate its expansion into international...
Cambridge Major Laboratories expects to complete construction of a
new process R&D and manufacturing facility in the middle of
2004 that will make it one of the largest Good Manufacturing
Practice (GMP) development and small-scale...
Norway's Norsk Hydro has agreed to sell 80.1 per cent of its shares
in omega-3 producer Pronova Biocare to Norwegian industrial company
Ferd for NOK 165 million (€19.4m).
UK drug delivery company SkyePharma expects to make a loss in 2003,
a disappointing result given that it chalked up its first
profitable year just a year earlier, and will cut 10 per cent of
its workforce as a result.
US chemicals firm Aceto has bought the German Pharma Waldhof
business from Switzerland's Roche, making its first foray into the
market for biologically-derived active pharmaceutical ingredients
(APIs).
German chemistry specialist ChiroBlock has pulled out of the
business of producing and marketing chiral compounds and will focus
exclusively on providing chiral research and synthesis services for
pharmaceutical and biotechnology...
Life sciences technology company Invitrogen has entered into a
definitive agreement to acquire fellow US firm BioReliance, which
specialises in the testing and manufacture of biologic drugs.
French chemicals company Rhodia has finally reached an agreement
with its creditors to refinance its considerable debt burden,
buying much-needed time to continue its restructuring operations.
Instrumentation company MOCON has unveiled plans to acquire
Germany's Paul Lippke Handels, which markets process and laboratory
test systems to companies in the pharmaceutical, food and packaging
industries.
The executive chairman of UK-based drug delivery specialist
SkyePharma, Ian Gowrie-Smith, will step down at the firm's next
annual general meeting in 2004 and seek reappointment as
non-executive chairman.
DFB Pharmaceuticals has acquired fellow US company Phyton to gain
access to the latter's plant cell fermentation technology for the
manufacture of pharmaceuticals.
Kiadis of the Netherlands has acquired the entire issued share
capital and assets of Selact in a move that bolsters its
capabilities in chemical synthesis and contract research.
2003 was the second best year of all time for the biotechnology
industry, and 2004 looks set to be even better. This is the verdict
of James Burrill, head of US merchant bank Burrill & Co, who
describes the industry as "rising...
US packaging giant MeadWestvaco has started the second phase of a
restructuring programme aimed at improving productivity at the firm
and boosting both earnings and cash flow, at the cost of 1,000 job
cuts and a number of facility...
The restructuring activity that has features this year in the
European pharmachem industry continued yesterday with the news that
Germany's Merck KGaA had sold off BioMer, a joint venture focusing
on orthopaedic products.
Mayne Group, Australia's largest generic drugs maker, is planning
to spend A$60 million (€35.6 million) on its Australian and Puerto
Rican factories in 2004.
US contract manufacturing start-up Xcellerex has completed its
first round of private financing that will enable it to kit out its
recently acquired manufacturing facility in Marlborough,
Massachusetts.
Although there are a number of interesting new compounds in the
antibacterial pipeline, none of them are likely to reach
blockbuster status, according to a new report from Datamonitor.
The troubles affecting the global chemicals industry were brought
into sharp focus today when Solutia filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection, citing onerous financial commitments to its former
parent Monsanto that are hampering...
Switzerland's Lonza has won a long-term manufacturing contract from
US biotechnology bellwether Genentech for Rituxan (rituximab) a
biological drug which recorded worldwide sales of $1.48 billion in
2002.
UK-headquartered separations company Whatman is to sell its filter
cartridge business to Graver Technologies of the US for $2.1
million (€1.7m) in cash, continuing a string of divestments as it
copes with a decline in revenues.
French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Synthelabo has opened a new
manufacturing facility in Aquitaine for the production of two of
its top drugs, the antithrombotic Plavix (clopidogrel) and Aprovel
(irbesartan) for hypertension.
Ireland's Elan has said that its US-based drug delivery business,
NanoSystems, will not be part of the sell-off in assets forced by
its onerous debt burden. The company is also retaining its US acute
care products business.
The lacklustre growth in the chemicals industry will continue to
lag behind world gross domestic product (GDP) growth over the next
few years, a reversal of the situation before 2000, according to
BASF chairman Juergen Hambrecht.
Scotland's PPL Therapeutics, once one of the brightest stars in the
UK biotechnology universe, came to desultory end this week when the
company auctioned off most of its remaining assets for just
£169,000 (€242,000).
The pharmaceutical industry's contribution to the UK's trade
balance has jumped by nearly a quarter in the first six months of
this year compared with the same period in 2002, figures released
today by the Association of...
Japan's Takeda Chemical Industries has said that a new €80 million
bulk plant it is building in Ireland will start production of raw
materials for its diabetes drug Actos (pioglitazone) from next
October. This is the first bulk...
The Scottish manufacturer of a safety syringe used in a new AIDS
drug has sacked most of its staff and shut down its only production
facility, but will continue to develop the technology.
Another report has slammed the so-called blockbuster model of drug
development in the pharmaceutical industry, in which R&D
efforts are concentrated on drugs that can command sales in excess
of $1 billion (€820m).
Sanofi-Synthelabo said it will invest €250 million over the next
four years to expand its production site in Veresegyhaz, Hungary,
and modernise its manufacturing processes.
Chemicals company Rhodia has played down reports in the French
press that it is considering a sell-off of its activities in
silicon, food additives and phosphates as part of an asset
divestment programme aimed at improving its profitability.
Allen McClay, the founder of Ireland's Chemical Synthesis Services,
has acquired the pharmaceutical development and manufacturing
business of Galen Holdings.
General Electric was yesterday cleared to press ahead with its €8.1
billion acquisition of UK Amersham by the US antitrust authorities,
and promptly announced a sweeping reorganisation of the business in
an attempt to boost its profit...
A number of senior executives at microfluidics and lab automation
specialist Caliper Technologies are leaving the company in a
reorganisation aimed at cutting costs and breaking even in cash
flow terms in 2005.
