Global Markets Archives - Page 14 of 41 - BioProcess InternationalBioProcess International

Celltrion commits $453m for third plant with 60,000 L capacity

Celltrion is constructing a third manufacturing plant at its site in Songdo, Korea and has a fourth in the works as it aims to have 600,000 L of bioreactor capacity operational by 2030. Korean drugmaker Celltrion has four biosimilars on the market and a pipeline consisting of five other potential biosimilar products and two novel biotherapeutics. Currently the firm has 190,000 L of bioreactor capacity available to it across two biomanufacturing facilities at its site in Songdo, Incheon, but aims…

Lonza making 400m doses of COVID vaccine and can scale up further if Moderna asks

by Dan Stanton

With four manufacturing lines prepped to produce 400 million doses, Lonza has congratulated Moderna on positive interim results for its mRNA vaccine against COVID-19. Biopharma has appeared to gain the upper hand on its battle against COVID-19 in the past week. First Pfizer and BioNTech reported positive interim results – a 90% efficacy rate – in a Phase III study of its mRNA vaccine candidate, and days later Moderna topped this reporting that its mRNA vaccine was shown to be…

Hiring staff ‘extra challenging’ during pandemic, says Emergent VP

by Ben Hargreaves

Emergent tries to fill bioprocessing talent gaps as it works to meet COVID-19 manufacturing demand. When the pandemic hit earlier this year, Emergent Biosolutions found its services as a specialist in vaccine development and manufacturing sought after by a number of leading efforts against COVID-19. The company’s contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) business unit found itself well placed, having already built up its capacity specifically to counter a pandemic alongside the US government. Alongside its newly found popularity as…

Flew vaccine? Merck teams to deliver meds by drone

by Dan Stanton

Merck & Co. has partnered with Volansi to test delivering cold chain products from a North Carolina manufacturing facility to a nearby health clinic. The ‘pilot’ scheme sees Merck (known as MSD outside of North America) use Volansi’s VOLY C10 drone to deliver vaccines and medicinal products from its facility in Wilson, North Carolina to Vidant Healthplex-Wilson, a Vidant Health clinic about two miles away. “This project is starting with Merck’s vaccines against measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, pneumonia, and hepatitis,”…

Blockchain platform offers advanced therapy tracking ‘vein-to-vein’

by Ben Hargreaves

Hataali blockchain technology used to secure supply chain in the UK could lead to a ‘standardized infrastructure’ for cell and gene therapy tracking, says ATMPS. ATMPS, a spin out from Farmatrust and the creator of the Hataali platform, tested the blockchain solution alongside the UK’s University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB). UHB is home to the Midlands and Wales Advanced Therapy Treatment Centre, which is comprised of partners from the NHS, academia and industry. The center, one of three…

Podcast: The impact of COVID-19 on the pharma and bio supply chain

by BPI Staff

Bioprocess Insider editor Dan Stanton joins an industry panel to discuss supply chain concerns stemming from the ongoing coronavirus crisis. Listen to the podcast now. Brought to you by international pharmaceutical content, digital and design agency ramarketing, the Molecule to Market podcast takes a listen to the contract outsourcing space with industry insights direct from the brains of the people that make the headlines. In this special episode, one of the headline writers – Bioprocess Insider founder and editor Dan…

Thermo Fisher: ‘$700m COVID CapEx easily repurposed post-pandemic’

by Dan Stanton

An additional $700 million capacity buildout to meet COVID-related demand will serve the longer-term non-pandemic-related biopharma market, says Thermo Fisher An unprecedented third quarter saw Thermo Fisher report a 36% rise in revenues year-on-year to $8.52 billion across all its segments. Its Life Sciences Solutions Segment – which includes its biosciences and bioproduction business units – saw a 101% rise to $3.42 billion, while its Laboratory Products and Services Segment – which includes drug manufacturing – increased by 19% to…

Fallen in place: Lonza veteran to lead Touchlight

by Ben Hargreaves

Touchlight hires Lonza’s Karen Fallen as CEO of its contract manufacturing organization, Touchlight DNA Services. Fallen joins Touchlight from Lonza, where she began working after the latter company’s acquisition of Celltech in 1996. By the end of her time at Lonza, Fallen held the position of head of mammalian & microbial development & manufacturing, where she was responsible for a workforce of 4,500 individuals, spanning 10 different sites. Fallen’s new organization is Touchlight DNA Services, based in Hampton, UK, which…

Ocugen signs deal with Indian CMO to avoid US capacity constraints

by Ben Hargreaves

Ocugen has signed a manufacturing deal with Kemwell Biopharma for a potential treatment of retinal diseases. The two companies entered the agreement for the clinical production of Ocu200, a novel biologic candidate that could enter clinical trials in 2022. Ocu200 will first be tested to treat diabetic macular edema (DME), but Ocugen also stated that, depending on clinical success, it could seek to expand treatment targets to diabetes retinopathy and wet-age related macular degeneration. The potential therapy is a novel…

Large-scale SUS ‘ideal’ to take on COVID-19 vaccine challenge, says ABEC

by Dan Stanton

ABEC will supply six 4,000 L single-use bioreactors to the Serum Institute of India and says such large-scale systems can produce billions of doses of potential COVID-19 vaccines at reasonable costs. The six Custom Single Run (CSR) bioreactors will be delivered to the Serum Institute’s site in Pune, India and will be used to manufacture Phase II COVID-19 vaccine NVX‑CoV2373. The candidate has been developed by Novavax, which last month inked a deal with the Indian vaccine maker to produce…