Thursday, April 29, 2021 Daily Archives

Lonza’s alleged need for Nestlé staff highlights shortage in biopharma talent

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Neither company will confirm reports that NestlĂ© staff have been commandeered to help Lonza service its Moderna contract but the story highlights biomanufacturing staffing issues. A report by Reuters this week claims contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Lonza is adding staff from fellow Swiss firm NestlĂ© in order to service a deal to produce drug substance for hundreds of millions of doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. The “call for volunteers” following an intervention by the Swiss government aims at…

April 29, 2021

Selecting the Best Transfection Method

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When to Use Transfection Reagents, Viral Transduction or Electroporation No single delivery method is ideal for all situations, but researchers may routinely employ a suboptimal approach for the sake of familiarity or to avoid any start-up costs associated with new methods. In this white paper, we will describe three methods (chemical, electroporation and viral transduction) and highlight the Mirus Bio TransIT® and VirusGEN® transfection reagents and Ingenio® EZporator® Electroporation System, which are both easy to use and cost-effective. Additionally, we…

April 29, 2021

Moderna invests to increase global COVID-19 vaccine supply

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Moderna will make additional investments to increase global supply of its COVID-19 vaccine to potentially three billion doses in 2022. While no financial details of the investment have been divulged, the firm has confirmed it will provide additional funding to increase supply at its partnered and owned manufacturing sites this year with production expected to grow in late 2021 and early 2022. The increased investment will double drug substance manufacturing at CDMO Lonza’s plant in Visp, Switzerland. Lonza partnered with…

April 29, 2021

Avectas to develop cell engineering technology for CGT space

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Avectas has received funding to develop a cell engineering technology platform to manufacture â€off-the-shelf’ cell therapies for cancer treatment. Irish cell engineering firm Avectas is leading a project in partnership with the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT) and Bluebridge Technologies, which will invest $8.7 million – including $5.3 million awarded by the Irish Government’s Disruptive Technology Innovation Fund (DTIF) – to develop the cell engineering platform Solupore. “Solupore is a comprehensive end-to-end cell engineering platform that comprises…

April 29, 2021