Varian has introduced a mobile washing station that can clean
pharmaceutical dissolution vessels in place, reducing the time it
takes to carry out the process and reducing the risk of expensive
breakages.
Chiral Quest has forged an alliance with DSM to accelerate the
take-up of its catalysis products, used in the synthesis of
chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
Sartorius, a German manufacturer of laboratory equipment, is
considering a possible initial public offering for its
biotechnology unit Vivascience in the second half of this year,
according to local press reports.
Packaging machinery company Thiele Technologies has launched an
automatic packer system that is specifically designed for use by
the pharmaceutical and food industries.
Strahman Valves of the US has expanded its product line and
increased its presence in Europe with the acquisition of MG Process
Valves. Both companies market a range of valves for the
pharmaceutical and other process industries.
Codexis has appointed a new head of biocatalysis and chemical
development, shoring up its expertise in what is a small but
fast-growing area of the catalysts market.
US company Sensitech has bought a Danish firm that shores up its
position in temperature and humidity monitoring of supply chains
and expands its presence into the European market.
The market for generic drugs is going to expand from its present
level of $35 billion (€29bn) to $80 billion in 2008, as
cash-strapped healthcare payors turn increasingly to cheaper
options.
UK companies producing hazardous waste - including the
pharmaceutical industry - are facing a dramatic reduction in the
number of landfill sites in the UK that will accept the material.
A new customisable conveyor system, specifically designed to meet
the regulatory demands on packaging in the pharmaceutical industry,
has been launched by AutoPak Engineering.
Germany's Icon Genetics and Israeli firm Protalix are to
collaborate on a way of hiking protein expression in plant cells to
improve their use a production vehicle for recombinant proteins.
Contract research manufacturer Diosynth has forged a joint venture
with a Swiss firm for a technology that could dramatically reduce
the time and cost of developing new cell lines for manufacturing
proteins, writes Phil Taylor.
Chemical giant BASF is set to raise its European price for
polystyrene (PS) by €200 per metric ton from 1 July this year in
response to what it calls totally unsatisfactory margins and
earnings.
A Korean company has developed a new way of making peptide nucleic
acids - a promising drug category that has been limited to date by
an expensive and cumbersome synthetic process.
After months of trying to find a partner for its pharmaceutical
division, Danish packaging company Superfos has abandoned the plan
and will retain the business, reports Phil Taylor.
NovAseptic has upgraded its NovaSeptum range of disposable samplers
to reduce the level of endotoxins to a level that falls well within
strict new guidelines set down by the European Pharmacopoeia.
Tekni-Plex has launched a new range of thermoformable films for
blister packaging that is thin, offers high moisture barrier
properties and can do away with the need to use
environmentally-unsound polyvinylchloride (PVC).
Colder Products, a provider of connectors to the processing and
packaging industries, has launched a new non-spill connection to
meet smaller size requirements in the chemical and other
industries.
A remote controlled camera system that provides continuous
monitoring of a key processing machine has achieved a hike in
operating efficacy at active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and
fine chemicals company Macfarlan Smith.
NovAseptic has launched what it claims is the first high shear
mixer that uses a magnet-driven mechanism, designed to make it
easier to clean and reduce the risk of contamination.
Irish start-up Celtic Catalysts believes it can tackle two of the
major obstacles holding back the use of catalysts to make chiral
drugs - the strong patent positions of existing players and
difficulties in scale-up - with its platform...
In Norway, the Supreme Court has concluded that the packaging
designused by the local subsidiary of parallel importer Paranova
does notinfringe Merck & Co's trademarks.
UK company Laminar Medica has launched a new shipping container for
pharmaceuticals that according to tests does not deviate from the
set temperature range, even after 450 intercontinental
transportations.
Membrane separation systems dominate the European market for
industrial process water treatment equipment, and the technology
looks set to consolidate and spread to Eastern Europe.
Malvern Instruments of the UK has launched a new system that is
intended as an entry level product for companies needing to size
particles in dry powders, suspensions and emulsions.
Switzerland's Chemspeed has launched a new workstation that allows
up to six reactions to be carried out in parallel, which should
speed up process R&D.
US-based healthcare conglomerate Cardinal Health has stepped up its
presence in the European market with the appointment of a new
management team for the region based in the UK.
The UK subsidiary of Japan's Yokogawa has introduced a new FT-NIR
(Fourier transform near infrared) analyser that runs as a
stand-alone system, with no need for an attached PC, making it
easier to install in a process environment.
This week has seen three companies put forward different solutions
to the topical issue of improving the yield of proteins and nucleic
acids made by biomanufacturing technologies.
The annual US Biotechnology Industry Association event started this
weekend in San Francisco with the usual showcase of new
biopharmaceuticals and other technologies. But aside from supplying
the drugs of the future, the biotechnology...
Quadro has introduced a new powder disperser designed to
incorporate difficult to wet powders into a liquid more
efficiently, cutting the amount of powder required by a third and
dramatically reducing batch times.
Drug re-engineering company Eiffel Technologies will add to its
existing project in improving insulin delivery with the start of
clinical trials of an in-house product early next year, writes
Wai Lang Chu.
Researchers have taken a step forward in the development of a
system for making unlimited quantities of antibody-based drugs for
human applications in cattle.
Formulatrix and Bruker AXS have pooled their resources to speed up
the process of high-throughput protein crystallography, a key
process in the identification of protein structure and function.
Dowpharma has unveiled plans to consolidate its biopharmaceutical
custom process development activities to a single site in the US
that it says will make it easier to respond to its clients' needs.
IBM has launched a new software package designed to make it easier
for small and medium-sized pharmaceutical and biotecnology
companies to cope with the compliance requirements of the US Food
and Drug Administration.
UK-based chemistry specialist Syrris has developed a new
microreactor that, it claims, can speed up the optimisation of
process reactions used in the drug industry.
A new company has been set up in the UK to apply high-throughput
technologies to the development of new chemical materials,
including catalysts and novel drugs, for use in the pharmachem
industries.
Researchers in Finland and Belgium have developed a new way of
making plant-derived compounds in cell cultures that should cut the
cost of manufacturing a raft of pharmaceuticals, including drugs
for cancer.
A recently-introduced microstructured mixer that can provide much
tighter heat and reaction control compared to conventional systems
was showcased at the ACHEMASIA meeting last week.
UK chemicals and metals firm Johnson Matthey has opened a precious
metal process catalyst manufacturing plant in India to cater to the
growing demand from the local pharmaceutical industry and provide a
springboard into other Asian...
Avecia Pharmaceuticals has consolidated its position in the
evolving Japanese pharmaceutical market by forging a technology
agreement with a local company,reports Phil Taylor.
France's Stedim and Integrated Biosystems have been awarded two new
patents on their Celsius line of containers, currently being
launched in Europe and US, that are used in the production of
biopharmaceuticals.
Computer giant IBM claims to have identified seven key technologies
that will drive innovation in the pharmaceutical industry over the
next decade, raise the quality of development and manufacturing
processes and slash the pre-launch...
Sweden's Biotage has launched a system for carrying out microwave
synthesis reactions that for the first time is targeted at the
individual medicinal chemist.
In March 2004, manufacturers of pharmaceuticals such as
prescription painkillers and other drugs at risk of abuse were
required to start using radiofrequency identification tags on all
pallets destined for retail giant Wal-Mart, almost...
Various options exist for freezing biopharmaceutical bulk material, but selecting the most effective and efficient approach for each cold chain can be...
Indena offers custom development by leveraging the expertise of a specialized team devoted to designing and developing processes and analytical methods....
