Author Archives: Dan Stanton

Third Korean plant with 120,000L capacity back on for Celltrion

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Celltrion has confirmed its third biomanufacturing plant will be constructed in Korea after assessing locations overseas. The facility will have 120,000 L of biologics capacity. Seo Jeong-jin, chairman of Korean drugmaker Celltrion, told investors at last year’s JP Morgan Healthcare Conference that plans laid down in 2016 to build a third biomanufacturing facility at its site in Songdo, Incheon had been scrapped in favor of a much larger facility overseas. But a year on and Celltrion has announced a U-turn.…

January 9, 2019

China’s biotech growth drives Pall center of excellence in Shanghai

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Pall has established a Center of Excellence in Shanghai, China to service a biotech sector it says is worth $500 million and set to grow by double-digits. Bioprocessing vendor Pall has several centers of excellence (CoE) set up globally to showcase its biomanufacturing offerings and has now opened a center in Shanghai to service the Chinese market. “The goal of the CoE is to facilitate training and adoption of the advanced manufacturing technologies that will improve the productivity and robustness…

January 9, 2019

Fujifilm pumps $111m into its US biologics and stem cell network

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Fujifilm Corporation will increase capacity at its North Carolina CDMO site to feed demand for mammalian and microbial manufacturing. The firm is also opening a $21m induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell plant in Wisconsin. Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies (FDB), a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) division of Japan’s Fujifilm Corporation, plans to invest JPY 10 billion ($90 million) into its site in Morrisville, North Carolina. “This expansion is driven by continued demand for our manufacturing capability given that our customer’s…

January 8, 2019

UK must avoid no-deal Brexit, says British pharma group

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Crashing out of the European Union without a deal will be catastrophic, says the head of the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) Mike Thompson.  However, the pharmaceutical industry is stockpiling medicines in preparation, he confirmed. As the UK braces itself for an unprecedented and potentially calamitous exit from the European Union (EU) on March 29th, firms including Pfizer, Merck & Co, and Sanofi, as well as UK-headquartered GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, have reportedly been stockpiling medicines. This was confirmed today by…

January 7, 2019

BMS $74bn Celgene deal to create ‘number one oncology franchise’

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The acquisition of Celgene will boost Bristol-Myers Squibb’s commercial portfolio and clinical pipeline and create synergies of $2.5 billion, the firm says. The new year has started with an M&A bang, with pharma giant Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) announcing its intentions to acquire its immune-oncology partner Celgene in a deal valued at $74 billion (€65 billion). According to Giovanni Caforio, CEO of Bristol-Myers Squibb, four value areas drove the merger. The first is creating leading franchises in oncology, immunology and inflammation…

January 7, 2019

Avid: Balancing MAb capacity with industry’s growing needs

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Monoclonal antibody (MAb) capacity remains roughly in balance with industry’s needs but firms should look to procure manufacturing services early to guarantee their projects, says CDMO Avid Bioservices. Twelve months ago, Peregrine Pharmaceuticals sold its internal monoclonal antibody (MAb) programs and became a pure contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) under the Avid Bioservices title. The CDMO has GMP facilities in Orange County, California offering biopharma firms both stainless steel and single-use biologics manufacturing services. As such, the firm spoke to…

January 4, 2019

Up titer: WuXi breaks 50g/L with continuous CHO process

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WuXi Biologics has achieved cell culture productivity for an Fc-fusion protein of 51 g/L and is confident it can be scaled up to 4,000 L. Single-use bioreactors are limited to 4,000 L in capacity (though many biomanufacturers put 2,000 L as their upper limit). Using these bioreactors with mammalian cell line tech is problematic for large-scale commercial use due to the generally low productivity of such expression systems, usually sub-10 g/L. But Chinese contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) WuXi…

January 2, 2019

Business must harness tech and innovation to thrive, says new Locate Bio CEO

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Biotech must work at the frontiers of biology and innovation while operating in a highly regulated environment says business development expert Nick Staples, the new CEO of Locate Bio. UK-based cell and gene therapy firm Locate Bio has had a reshuffle at the top, hiring veteran biopharma business executive and industry analyst Dr Nick Staples as CEO. BioProcess Insider spoke with Staples to find out his vision for Locate Bio, and how best to manage the often conflicting business and…

December 31, 2018

TeneoBio expands cell banking deal with Selexis

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Selexis will develop research cell banks for a further three preclinical candidates in Teneobio’s oncology pipeline of multi-specific biologics. In June 2017, biotech firm Tenebio selected cell line development and biologics services firm Selexis, part of the JSR Life Sciences group, to develop research cell banks (RCBs) for multi-specific UniAb candidates for multiple myeloma. Tenebio has now extended the contract to use Selexis’ SUREtechnology Platform for three more of its multi-specific Human Heavy-Chain Antibodies candidates, known as UniAbs. “The resounding…

December 27, 2018

Novartis bids to buy its French CAR-T CDMO

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Novartis has made an offer to buy its manufacturing partner CELLforCURE. If accepted, Novartis will add a facility in Les Ulis, France to its CAR-T network. Novartis announced it was working with CELLforCURE in July, transferring its chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell production technology to the French contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) from its site in Morris Plain, New Jersey. Less than six months on, the Swiss pharma giant has made an offer to buy “the share capital of…

December 21, 2018