Author Archives: BPI Staff

Catalent’s Paragon plans second plant to support Sarepta pipeline

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Fresh from an acquisition agreement by Catalent, Paragon Bioservices is seeking to establish a second manufacturing plant dedicated to produce Sarepta Therapeutics’ gene therapy pipeline. Last week, contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Catalent agreed to acquire gene therapy maker Paragon for $1.2 billion (€1.1 billion). Within hours of the announcement Paragon, with Catalent’s backing, said it is seeking to establish a second manufacturing facility at its site in Anne Arundel County, Maryland for the dedicated production of Sarepta gene…

April 19, 2019

2019 BioProcess International West Event Report

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At the BPI West conference in Santa Clara, CA, common themes wove throughout multiple tracks specific to process stages and levels of regulatory scrutiny. The BPI West program brings upstream and downstream experts together into the same sessions based on whether they share early or late-stage concerns. Even though special tracks addressed viral safety and technological advancements this past March, and preconference symposia focused on specific topics, a significant amount of session overlap throughout the week ensured that attendees could…

April 15, 2019

Cell therapy vendors: News from Miltenyi and Saint-Gobain

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Bellicum Pharmaceuticals has inked a supply agreement with Miltenyi Biotec; Hitachi Chemical has teamed with Saint-Gobain to address manufacturing challenges – welcome to Bioprocess Insider’s cell therapy services round-up. In an SEC filing, Houston, Texas-based cellular immunotherapy firm Bellicum Pharmaceuticals revealed it has entered a agreement with Miltenyi Biotec GmbH for the supply of “certain products in connection with the development and manufacture of certain of the Company’s products.†The firm will pay Miltenyi a €2 million ($2.3 million) upfront…

April 12, 2019

Spin-out Cellular Highways looks to next-generation cell-sorting

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There is no cell purification technology that allows the selection of cells based on several molecular markers at the same time while processing large batches of cells. That is until the VACS platform, new entity Cellular Highways claims. Tech firm TTP has invested £1.7 million ($2.2 million) in its spin-out firm Cellular Highway in efforts to commercialize the Vortex-Actuated Cell Sorting (VACS) platform. Bioprocess Insider (BI) spoke to Salman Samson Rogers (SSR), CEO of the new entity to find out…

April 8, 2019

Novo Nordisk making good on CAPEX pledge with $100m Danish spend

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Novo Nordisk’s Kalundborg, Denmark site produces half the world’s insulin, the firm claims, as it looks to upgrade and expand its facilities. In Novo Nordisk’s end of year report, the firm announced its intentions to invest DKK 9 billion ($1.4 billion) in capital expenditure to reinforce its property, plants and equipment in 2019. This week, the Danish drugmaker made good on DKK 650 million worth of its pledge by announcing plans to upgrade and expand its insulin production site in…

April 3, 2019

AbbVie slashes 178 Stemcentrx jobs in California

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AbbVie will reduce the workforce at a facility run by its acquisition Stemcentrx months after halting enrollment a Phase III trial for lead candidate Rova-T. In 2016, AbbVie acquired Stemcentrx for approximately $5.8 billion (€5.2 billion), bolstering its oncology pipeline with the addition of late-stage asset rovalpituzumab tesirine (Rova-T) in trials for small cell lung cancer (SCLC). But this month, AbbVie announced plans to cut jobs at Stemcentrx site in South San Francisco through a Californian Worker Adjustment and Retraining…

March 29, 2019

Three-way consortium aims to optimize biologics development

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Valitacell, Solentim and Microcoat have teamed up to advance in-line productivity assays to speed up biologics’ development with a €3.5 million grant. In February, Irish biotech Valitacell partnered with biomanufacturing instruments firm Solentim to transform current workflows using a streamlined, automated platform to drive the earlier identification and accelerate development of biologic candidates. The consortium will bring together Valitacell’s ValitaPIX technology with Solentim’s instrumentation to create a system enabling the automation of data-driven analysis and selection of top clones during…

March 27, 2019

Pfizer takes 15% stake in gene therapy firm Vivet

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The deal, worth a potential $636 million, will help accelerate Pfizer’s adeno-associated virus (AAV) directed gene therapy portfolio, the firm says. Emerging French biotech firm Vivet Therapeutics has a gene therapy pipeline based on its adeno-associated virus (AAV) technologies with lead candidate VTX-801 preparing to enter the clinic as a potential treatment for Wilson disease. The firm will now benefit from support from Pfizer after the Big Pharma firm paid around €45 million ($51 million) to acquire a 15% equity…

March 27, 2019

Shanghai center aims to accelerate cell and gene therapy development

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The ATLATL-MACS Center will support biotech firms in the burgeoning cell and gene therapy space and will include access to Miltenyi automated CAR-T preparation instruments. Having spent a year under construction, ATLATL-MACS Center opened this week. The center is a collaboration between ATLATL Innovation Cluster (AIC) – a Chinese innovation support firm offering lab space as a service – and cell and gene therapy vendor Miltenyi Biotec aimed at supporting the growing research in innovative and personalized medicines. ATLATL and…

March 22, 2019

BioProcess International Europe 2019: Event Planner

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BioProcess International Europe has earned its reputation as the leading and largest European bioprocessing industry event. It is a key time each year when the industry connects to share new ideas and innovations across all phases of bioprocessing: from cell line development through upstream and downstream, with bioprocess analytics, viral safety, continuous manufacturing, and vaccines. This year’s meeting on 2–4 April 2019 at the Messe Wien Exhibition Congress Center in Vienna, Austria will attract more than 900 scientists, engineers, and…

March 20, 2019