The addition of a plant in Liverpool, UK, from AbbVie will support ambitions in the biologics and cell and gene therapy space, says service firm Pharmaron. Chinese pharma services firm Pharmaron Beijing Co is set to pay $118.7 million in cash to AbbVie for its Allergan Biologics Limited (ABL) business, located in Liverpool, UK. AbbVie acquired ABL as part of its $63 billion acquisition of Allergan in 2019. The proposed sale – expected to go through in the second quarter…
After beginning a $15 million expansion of its Myford, California facility late last year, CDMO Avid Bioservices is starting work on a second extension estimated to cost $45 to $55 million. Contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Avid Bioservices had been looking to build out the Myford, Tustin, California production facility for several years to prepare for continued high demand from the biologics sector. Plans for a $30-40 million expansion finally materialized last July, but no date or details were…
Executives from Novavax, Fujifilm, and Biocon have called for standardized processes and simplified regulations after a Cytiva-led survey showed improving manufacturing agility is a major priority for biopharma. A survey of around 1,100 senior executives across 20 countries commissioned by bioprocess vendor Cytiva has highlighted industry’s confidence in the biopharma space. With respondents scoring several sectors within the industry, the Biopharma Resilience Index averaged an overall score of 6.6 out of 10. But according to Hannah Freegard, senior editor at…
Moderna aims to up capacity for its COVID-19 vaccine to 1.4 billion doses through investment in ‘flexible’ manufacturing, which it says will offset any risk from variants or future overcapacity. What a year it has been for Moderna Therapeutics. For the fourth quarter 2020, the firm reported sales of $200 million – up from nothing the previous year – as regulatory approvals began rolling in for its messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccine mRNA-1273. Since it began working on a COVID-19…
Merck & Co. will add a pipeline of precision immune modulators and a drug design and discovery platform through the proposed acquisition of Pandion. The deal, announced today, will see Merck & Co. pay $60 per share in cash for the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based firm, totalling roughly $1.85 billion. Pandion is developing therapies for the tissue-specific treatment of patients with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases and organ transplants. Its lead candidate, bispecific antibody PT101, is in early-phase clinical trial for ulcerative colitis…
Repligen says it will both reinvest in its manufacturing network and look for M&A opportunities to feed the high demand for bioprocess consumables. For the full year 2020, bioprocessing tech firm Repligen Corporation reported sales of $366 million, up 36% year-on-year. The fourth quarter itself pulled in $108 million, representing a 56% increase on the same period 2019. As with fellow bioprocess vendors (Danaher, Sartorius, Thermo Fisher etc), COVID-19 played a major part in Repligen’s 2020 top line, with its…
Having its own plasmid DNA capabilities will launch Catalent into areas like mRNA and non-viral gene delivery, the CDMO says. Catalent has entered into an agreement to buy fellow contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Delphi Genetics, adding – if the deal goes through – a plasmid DNA (pDNA) platform and supporting production services from preclinical to Phase III. The deal, financial details of which have not been divulged, will also bring Catalent a 17,000 square-foot facility in Gosselies, Belgium,…
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the growing mammalian and viral vaccines market and placed Emergent in a “leading position†in the CDMO space, says CEO Bob Kramer. The fourth quarter 2020 produced record revenues for Emergent BioSolutions, with the firm reporting sales of $583 million, up 62% on the year prior. For the full year, sales tallied $1.56 billion, up 41% on 2019. While Emergent has its own product line (contributing $340 million in the quarter, with its smallpox vaccine…
The SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus has galvanized what was a stagnant and oligopoly-run vaccine industry. In this inaugural BioProcess Insider eBook, the first of four to be published in 2021, founding editor Dan Stanton explores economic and technical conditions that until now have hampered innovation in vaccine development and discouraged market entry for emerging biotechnology companies. Leveraging commentary from vaccine industry experts and analyzing the range of emerging vaccine modalities, Stanton surveys how industry responses to the COVID-19 pandemic are fostering…
The proposed acquisition of Cognate BioServices will bring services firm Charles River Laboratories autologous and allogeneic cell therapy, plasmid DNA and viral vector manufacturing capabilities. The agreement announced yesterday will see Charles River pay $875 million in cash for the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO). Through the deal, Charles River has propelled itself into the manufacturing space, entering a lucrative cell therapy and plasmid production market. “The addressable market for Cognate’s CDMO services principally cell therapy and plasmid production…