Thursday, November 14, 2019 Daily Archives

BioProcess International 2019 Event Report

The 2019 BioProcess International Conference and Exhibition, held in Boston, MA from 9–12 September, was a testament to the rapid expansion of the biopharmaceutical industry. Nearly 150 speakers chronicled recent developments and continuing challenges in upstream production, downstream processing, drug product manufacturing, and emerging therapies production. And with more than 150 poster presentations and over 200 companies participating, the BPI exhibit hall never better embodied the industry’s efforts to support increasingly diverse but related audiences. In this event report, BioProcess…

Evotec to settle on Seattle for first commercial J.POD facility

Six months on from acquiring Just.Bio, Germany’s Evotec has laid plans to build its first US-based commercial biologics modular facility in Seattle. German R&D firm Evotec jumped into the biologics manufacturing space in May 2019 through the $90 million acquisition (€82 million) of Just.Bio. The offerings gained from Just.Bio include a large molecule manufacturing design platform known as J.DESIGN, and a lab and computational tool for rapid development of a high-yielding manufacturing process called JP3. Evotec also gained a cGMP…

German plant fastest option to make approved Ebola vaccine, says Merck

Merck & Co expects to complete production of the first batches of Ervebo – its newly EC-licensed Ebola vaccine – at its Burgwedel plant by late 2020. The European Commission (EC) granted Ervebo conditional marketing authorization for the active immunization of individuals 18 years of age or older to protect against Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) caused by Zaire Ebola virus this week. The decision was based on data submitted for accelerated assessment in March. Merck – which is known as…

Who got the Funk? Not Lonza, as CEO unexpectedly quits

Marc Funk has stepped down from his position as CEO after only nine months and is leaving Lonza, citing personal reasons. Marc Funk was made CEO of Swiss contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Lonza in March this year, after his predecessor Richard Ridinger retired following a seven-year tenure. But just nine months on, Lonza has announced Funk is leaving the company “for personal reasons,†handing the CEO baton to chairman Albert Baehny on an interim basis until a permanent…