Merck KGaA will invest €150 million ($168 million) to build a facility with two new aseptic filling lines at its site in Aubonne. For Germany’s Merck, the Aubonne site in Switzerland is its global center of expertise for the production of biotech drug products, carrying out both aseptic filling and packaging operations. The €150 million investment will cover a new building with two new lines for the aseptic filling – one for freeze-dried formulations, one for liquid formulations – of…
GE Healthcare will demonstrate automated single-use bioprocessing technologies at Interphex this week after teaming up with Rockwell Automation. Ahead of the Interphex event in New York City this week, GE Healthcare has announced a collaboration with Rockwell Automation, combining automation, IT and single-use technologies in efforts to create more flexible and faster facilities. “We are working with Rockwell to develop innovative solutions that address single-use bioprocessing challenges,†Kevin Seaver, executive general manager of Bioprocess Automation and Digital at GE Healthcare…
Managing director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has told Indian news outlets Biocon could spin-out its biologics division to raise funds for further biosimilar development. Biocon is Indian’s largest pharmaceutical firm with a portfolio of small molecule and branded formulation products. But the Indian drugmaker has also begun to make its mark on the international biosimilars market with commercialization partner Mylan launching various products in both the US and European markets. Ogivri became the first biosimilar of Roche’s Herceptin (trastuzumab) to be approved…
The EMA has recommended approving Zynteglo, bluebird bio’s one-off treatment for beta-thalassaemia. Meanwhile the cell and gene therapy firm has cut the ribbon on a 125,000-square-foot facility in Durham, North Carolina. The EMA’s Committee for Advanced Therapies (CAT) recommended Zynteglo (autologous CD34+ cells encoding βA-T87Q-globin gene) – also know as LentiGlobin – today, paving the way for bluebird bio to bring its gene therapy product to market. The product uses a lentiviral viral vector to add functional copies of a…
CDMO Lonza will use the non-viral, gene delivery piggyBac system to improve the titer of difficult-to-express proteins after acquiring the IP rights from Transposagen. The deal brings contract development and manufacturing organization Lonza the transposon-based technology. The platform uses an engineered hyperactive piggyBac transposase enzyme to insert expression vector cargos into the host cell genome and preferentially targets stable regions of the genome associated with highly expressed genes. “We acquired the IP rights to the piggyBac technology for bioprocessing,†Sarah…
Months after doubling capacity at the Gosselies site, Orgenesis has announced further plans to expand its CDMO Masthercell too feed the demand for cell and gene therapies. Late last year, contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Masthercell unveiled a wing with five cleanrooms at its site in Gosselies, Belgium, which it said effectively doubled its cell therapy production capacity. Four months on and the firm’s parent company Orgenesis has announced another expansion at the site having signed a lease on…
Allogene has tweaked the manufacturing process for its allogeneic CAR-T candidate ALLO-501 to produce more robust and consistent product. Since raising $324 million (€283 million) in an initial public offering (IPO) last October, Allogene Therapeutics has announced plans to build a 118,000 square foot cell therapy manufacturing facility in Newark, California and reported its first fourth quarter financials. In the call discussing the latter, the firm’s CEO David Chang told stakeholders that success for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies…
After assessing over 70 opportunities, Bristol-Myers Squibb insists the proposed $74 billion acquisition of Celgene is the ‘right and best’ option for the firm. Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) announced in January it had entered into an agreement to buy Celgene for $74 billion (€65 billion) in what will be the largest megamerger ever in the biopharma space. The deal has been undermined by investor groups, which have described the proposed acquisition as “poorly conceived and ill-advised.†But speaking at the Cowen…
Thermo Fisher has broadened its CDMO interest by agreeing to acquire viral vector firm Brammer Bio. The deal brings Brammer access to a broad portfolio of gene therapy technologies and consumables. This morning bioprocess giant Thermo Fisher made good on the recent rumors of a major acquisition by agreeing to buy contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Brammer Bio for $1.7 billion (€1.5 billion) in cash from Ampersand Capital Partners. Formed through the merger of Brammer Biopharmaceuticals and Florida Biologix…
While vaccines will continue to be dominated by GSK, Merck, Pfizer, and Sanofi, manufacturing and collaborations can help to unblock this consolidated industry says recent entrant Takeda. Rahul Singhyi, COO of Takeda vaccines, told delegates at the BPI West event in Santa Clara, California that vaccines used to be viewed as “the backwaters of the pharma industry, largely considered part of corporate social responsibility,†but that has changed over the past 20 years due to innovations and approvals in disease…