ConjuChem, a company specialised in improving the formulation of
peptide drugs, has said that it is aiming to raise around C$12
million (€7.6m) in a new private placement round
Switzerland's Bachem SA, which specialises in the manufacture and
sale of bulk peptides and related organic chemicals as active
ingredients for the pharmaceutical industry, has announced that it
expects full-year sales growth...
Caliper Technologies has announced its intention to acquire
laboratory automation, liquid handling and robotics specialist
Zymark in a deal valued at around $71 million in cash and stock.
Germany's Chiracon, a specialist in novel raw and starting
materials for high-value pharmaceuticals, has joined the circle of
Startup-Partners, the central capital marketing agency for Berlin.
Sam Waksal, the disgraced former chief executive of US
biotechnology company ImClone Systems, is due for sentencing today
and could receive a jail sentence as well as significant fines.
Isis Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly say they have reached a mutually
beneficial renegotiation of their manufacturing relationship for
cancer drug Affinitak
Millennium Pharmaceuticals has said that it plans to cut around 600
jobs and wind down some of its manufacturing operations as it seeks
to reach profitability by 2006
ICOS has entered into a biologics manufacturing agreement with Eli
Lilly, in which the Bothell, Washington-based firm will manufacture
two clinical candidates
Patheon Italia has extended its manufacturing services agreement
with Roche to continue to supply the Swiss firm with solid, liquid
and sterile products for the European market.
Xenova of the UK has been awarded a two-year contract by Sweden's
Pharmexa for the manufacture of a vaccine in clinical trials as a
treatment for breast cancer and other tumours.
Schroder Ventures Life Sciences has raised $402 million (€344m) for
its biotechnology investment fund, providing a signal that venture
capital may at last be turning its head back in the direction of
the sector.
Baxter Healthcare of the US says it is planning a seven-year, $100
million (€85m) expansion of its parenteral contract manufacturing
services for pharma and biotech companies.
Swiss chemicals group Lonza has said that a new small-scale
production plant at its Visp site will come on stream in July and
will boost its services in the area of exclusive manufacturing of
pharmaceutical products.
UK-based packaging company Rexam has reached an agreement to
acquire all the shares of Risdon Pharma Development, a plastic
pharmaceutical packaging business, for €125 million in cash.
Cambrex has initiated a project aimed at constructing a new
facility to accommodate four cGMP-compliant suites dedicated to
cell therapy manufacturing. The company said the expansion would
increase its manufacturing capacity by 100...
Just over a year after acquiring the FSG business from Vivendi for
$360 million (€307m), Pall Corp has reported a healthy hike in
fiscal third-quarter sales and profits and once again raised its
earnings forecast for 2003.
Akzo Nobel's Diosynth unit has signed a multi-year contract to
manufacture and supply the active pharmaceutical ingredient for
Pfizer's growth hormone receptor antagonist Somavert. The value of
the agreement was not disclosed,...
Aldo Magnini has been appointed managing director of Clariant's
pharmaceuticals ingredients manufacturing business in Italy, based
around the company's two manufacturing plants in Origgio and Isso.
Japanese drugmaker Eisai is planning to double the production
capacity for its two top-selling drugs - Pariet and Aricept - by
2004, with an investment of ¥9 billion (€65m).
UK firm Cobra Bio-Manufacturing has announced its intention to
undertake a placing and open offer to raise £4.65 million (€6.45m)
to fund the purchase of an additional manufacturing plant in
Cowley, Oxford.
UK company SkyePharma is expecting to achieve turnover of £100
million (€139m) in 2003, which would represent a rise of around 40
per cent over last year. However, the company has warned that the
lion's share of this total would...
Speciality chemical company Rohm and Haas has created a new
business unit, Advanced Biosciences, that specialises in the
production and purification of biopharmaceuticals. The new unit is
well placed to address the shortfall in production...
The European Commission has given the go-ahead for Germany to grant
a proposed €78 million in aid to help Merck KGaA build a new
biopharmaceuticals plant for the production of oncology products in
Jena, Thuringen.
Switzerland's Solvias AG, a specialist in scientific and technical
services and products based on synthesis and analysis, has reported
a healthy 20 per cent hike in 2002 sales to SF43.6 million
(€28.6m). The increase was driven...
US pharmaceutical major Eli Lilly has earmarked a hefty £220
million (€304 million) investment over the next four years in its
UK facilities, representing the largest investment by the firm in
any European country.
US pharmaceutical major Pfizer reinforced its position as the
world's largest drug company in 2002 after putting in sales of
$29.45 billion (€25.12 bn) in 2002, a hike of 11 per cent over the
prior year, according to a new analysis...
As this edition of In-pharmatechnologist.com goes online, the US
Food and Drug Administration is convening the inaugural meeting of
its Advisory Committee for Pharmaceutical Science's Manufacturing
Subcommittee.
The Smart Active Labels Consortium is to present its first seminar,
titled "Smart Active Labels for Temperature Tracking: Shaping
the Future of Food/Pharmaceutical Distribution," on June 10 -
11 in Chicago, US.
Swiss intermediates and fine chemical company Lonza said today it
is to cut around 500 jobs mainly in Europe and the US as part of a
restructuring programme to reduce the negative effects of the
current economy on most of its business...
Attendance at SupplySide East earlier this month was slightly up on
last year, according to organisers, and although there were few
product launches, the conference provided all the drama.
Speciality chemicals company International Specialty Products (ISP)
continues its quest to expand the company's presence in the growing
personal care market segment with the news this week that it has
collaborated with biotech...
Netherlands-based drugs, coatings and chemical maker Akzo Nobel has
announced a €500 million divestment program and suggested that it
is unlikely to remain a player in all three of these sectors in the
long term.
UK-based vaccine maker PowderJect is now said to be in the latter
stages of takeover negotiations, with the interested party widely
tipped to be the USA's Chiron, rumoured to be proferring a bid
valuing the company at around...
Dutch life sciences company DSM has broken ground on a new site in
Montreal, Canada, set to become a large-scale biopharmaceuticals
plant. Phase one - at a cost of €100m - due for completion by 2005.
In the US this week, supplier of botanical extracts for the
pharmaceutical industry Pharmachem Laboratories announced that it
has acquired 'the largest botanical extraction facility in North
America, producing extracts for the...
The launch of newer technology products with a wide range of
applications and the facility to deliver proteins, peptides, and
large molecules is expected to rake in market revenues, according
to a new report from market analysts Frost...
Despite a testing global economic climate, sales remained steady
and earnings before interest and taxes rose for German speciality
chemicals company Degussa in the first quarter of 2003. But guarded
optimism remains for 2003.
Spotlight on the home of the celebrated pork pie in England, with
the annoucement this week that Melton Mowbray-based Bridgehead
Technologies and Pharmalicensing - two biopharmaceutical business
development companies - are to merge.
US manufacturer of vitamins, minerals, herbs and supplements
D&E Pharmaceuticals, has launched a contract manufacturing
services initiative, principally aimed at small to medium sized
nutraceutical suppliers.
US zuChem, a development-stage company that focuses on
commercialising manufacturing processes for glycochemicals, has
raised a considerable chunk of capital. Funds earmarked for
development of new sugar-based pharmaceutical intermediates.
A new collaboration sees Hitachi Software Engineering (HSW)
acquiring the rights from German MWG-Biotech to produce DNA
microarrays for sale solely in Japan.
In a bid to improve efficiency and reduce costs UK in vitro
diagnostics company Axis-Shield is to shift the manufacture of
certain products from its site in Oslo, Norway to the company's
global headquarters in Dundee, Scotland.
Operating profit for Danish enzyme company Novozymes improved
marginally in the first quarter of 2003, despite the impact of
unfavourable exchange rates. On the back of favourable developments
in net financials, the company reports...
UK life sciences group Amersham has reported first-quarter 2003
sales of £381 million (€544m), flat on the same period of 2002 but
up 6 per cent if unfavourable currency impacts and discontinued
product sales were excluded. The results...
Danish Novo Nordisk plans to break ground on a €10 million
expansion of its insulin manufacturing facility in Clayton, US. The
company has awarded the contract to BE&K Engineering and Suitt
Construction for the 19,000-square-foot...
Outsourcing drug discovery functions is a rapidly growing trend
that has led to a nearly $2 billion (€1.7bn) industry worldwide,
according to a new study released this week by Kalorama
Information, and contract services in the field...
Balchem reported a small rise in net sales, up 3 per cent overall
during the first quarter of 2003, but said it was pleased with
results in light of the continued difficult economic environment.
Net earnings at the New York-based...
Paris, France-based speciality chemicals company Rhodia has
reported a disappointing set of first quarter figures that reflects
what the firm describes as "a difficult economic and geopolitical
environment" and "a trough...
