Author Archives: Dan Stanton

Samsung Bioepis riding the biosimilar third wave

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Samsung Bioepis has beefed up its biosimilar pipeline with versions of Lucentis (ranbizumab) and Soliris (eculizumab) under development. In Europe, South Korean biopharma firm has achieved commercial success with four biosimilar products. In the US – through commercialization partner Merck & Co. – it has launched one and has two other biosimilars under review. When looking at the market and large pharma biosimilar makers such as Pfizer and Sandoz “we are up to par with the ‘big boys’ in terms…

October 29, 2018

Avid to triple process dev capacity on early-stage demand

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Since becoming a pure-play CDMO, Avid Bioservices says it is experiencing growing demand for process development services and has begun expanding capabilities at its site in California. At the turn of the year, Avid Bioservices became a pure contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) by selling off its internal monoclonal antibody programs to Oncologie and dropping its Peregrine Pharmaceuticals nametag. To grow the business further, Avid has begun a project to expand its process development services by adding 6,000 square feet…

October 29, 2018

Turning of the tide: High potential for oligos, says survey

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Within the tides space, oligonucleotides hold the most opportunity for commercial success and growth say respondents of a KNect365 survey. The oligonucleotide therapeutic market could be viewed as having suffered a false start. The potential of antisense oligonucleotides to silence specific genes was jumped upon in the 1980s with numerous companies investing heavily in the field and commencing hundreds of clinical trials. However, the unexpected complexity of oligonucleotide pharmacology somewhat dampened the sector. And though the US Food and Drug…

October 29, 2018

Merck & Co. pumping up to $16bn into biomanufacturing

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Merck & Co. has upped its capital expenditure plans through 2022 to increase manufacturing capacity in areas including oncology and vaccines. At the beginning of the year, tax changes in the US led to a wealth of potential investment promises by Big Pharma looking to benefit from lower corporate rates and to repatriate cash from overseas. Merck & Co. (known as MSD outside North America) was one such firm, and in its February earnings call it announced plans to invest…

October 26, 2018

Janssen closing in on ‘holy grail’ through $82m HIV vaccine plant

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Janssen has opened a single-use manufacturing facility in Leiden, the Netherlands to support the commercialization of its preventative HIV vaccine candidate. Commissioned in 2014, the multipurpose vaccine production facility is being inaugurated today (Thursday October 25) in Leiden, the Netherlands and will initially be used to manufacture the firm’s investigational mosaic HIV-1 preventive vaccine. The facility represents an investment of €72 million ($82 million). The facility came about following the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Dirk Redlich, VP of…

October 25, 2018

Thermo Fisher services biz up 28% as Patheon enters the mix

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Construction is underway at the ‘largest outsourced single-use site in North America’ says Thermo Fisher, a year after acquiring CDMO Patheon. In April 2018, Thermo Fisher Scientific announced a $50 million (€44 million) expansion at a plant in St Louis, Missouri to add 16,000 L of single-use capacity. The facility is run by contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Patheon, acquired by Thermo Fisher in August 2017 for around $7.2 billion. And during a Q3 financial call, Thermo Fisher CEO…

October 25, 2018

Single-use, double-digits: Robust quarters for Pall and Sartorius

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The “large molecule dynamic†underpins Pall Corporation’s continued quarterly double-digit growth, says owner Danaher. Fellow bioprocessing vendor Sartorius also saw double-digit gains in sales revenue and earnings. “Pall had a great quarter, producing double-digit core revenue growth,†Tom Joyce, CEO of Pall’s parent company Danaher Corporation told stakeholders during its recent third quarter financial call. “In particular, our biotech business, including single-use technologies was up mid-teens in the quarter.†For Danaher’s total business, Q3 sales were $4.85 billion (€4.25 billion),…

October 24, 2018

Novartis growing CAR-T network amid slow Kymriah sales

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Novartis says it remains confident Kymriah will pull in $200 million in 2019 through the remediation and ramp-up of its CAR-T manufacturing network. For the third quarter 2018, Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) netted Novartis $20 million (€17.4 million), making a total of $48 million for the first nine months of the year. The product became the first chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell to be approved in August 2017. Elizabeth Barrett, chief executive officer of oncology at Novartis, said the sales figures were…

October 22, 2018

Roche ups cell therapy interest through SQZ expansion deal

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Roche has expanded its partnership with SQZ Biotechnologies to codevelop therapeutics derived from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in a deal worth up to $1 billion. In 2015, Swiss Biopharma Roche partnered with SQZ to use its B cell engineering technology in the development of cell therapies for cancer. This week, the firm has expanded the partnership to jointly develop and commercialize products based on antigen presenting cells (APCs) created by the SQZ platform. “SQZ entered into a first collaboration…

October 19, 2018

Merck building second biologics plant at Irish site, adding 170 jobs

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The construction of a vaccine and biologics production at a site in County Carlow is the latest commitment to Ireland, says Merck & Co. Merck & Co. – known as MSD outside of North America – will construct a second plant at its site in Carlow, Ireland, about 80km south-west of Dublin. The project will create 170 new jobs. “The facility will focus on the production of vaccines and biologics and there will also be an expansion of warehouse and…

October 19, 2018