Author Archives: Millie Nelson

Selexis teams with Tallac in latest cell line deal

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Selexis has entered a cell line development partnership with Tallac Therapeutics to advance immunotherapies used to treat cancer. Both companies have signed a service agreement and a commercial license agreement to strengthen Tallac’s Toll-like Receptor Agonist Antibody Conjugate (TRAAC) platform. The platform allows “systemic delivery of a differentiated and targeted TLR9 agonist (T-CpG) for immune activation.†The collaboration will also see Tallac employ Selexis’ SUREtechnology platform, which is used to advance the research cell banks to enable immunotherapy candidates that…

March 24, 2021

Stirling Ultracold fifth acquisition in 2 years for BioLife

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Supplier of services and bioproduction tools BioLife Solutions has merged with developer and manufacturer of ultra-low temperature freezers Stirling Ultracold. “We continue to execute on our M&A strategy with another acquisition that superbly complements our product portfolio. Combining Stirling’s -20°C to -86°C freezer systems with our liquid nitrogen products provides complete ultra-low temperature cold-chain infrastructure critical for personalized medicine,†said BioLife’s CEO, Mike Rice. The transaction is expected to close during the early second quarter of 2021 with BioLife planning…

March 23, 2021

Catalent increases capacity in Italy for J&J’s COVID vaccine

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Catalent will add a high-speed vial-filling line to increase its manufacturing capacity for J&J’s single-shot COVID-19 vaccine. The expanded partnership will see contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) Catalent add an additional high-speed vial-filling line at its site in Anagni, Italy. The line is set to be operational by the fourth quarter of 2021 and support the making of Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) COVID-19 vaccine throughout 2022. The CDMO said the increase in its manufacturing capacity at the 300,000 square-foot Italian…

March 19, 2021

Takeda loans J&J CDMO space to support COVID vaccine roll out

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IDT Biologika will use capacity reserved for Takeda’s dengue vaccine candidate to provide fill-finish for Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 single-shot jab. Contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) IDT Biologika had been contracted to use its Dessau site in Germany to manufacture Takeda’s dengue vaccine candidate, TAK-003. However, the facility will now be dedicated to filling and packaging J&J’s vaccine, which received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in February this year. J&J’s vaccine will be manufactured at the Dessau site…

March 17, 2021

Lonza dedicates suite to make Altimmune’s nasal COVID-19 vaccine

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Lonza will commission a dedicated suite at its Houston, US facility for supply of Altimmune’s AdCOVID, a nasal COVID-19 vaccine that entered Phase I trials last month. Last November, Altimmune entered an agreement which meant that Lonza would provide commercial production capacity for AdCOVID from its Houston, US, site. Now, Altimmune has expanded its manufacturing partnership with lonza by adding capacity and stability through its own dedicated suite. “Our recently inaugurated Houston facility is our center of excellence for process…

March 17, 2021

Ins & Outs: Ex-Lonza CEO joins Recipharm, plus changes at Moderna

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Marc Funk has joined CDMO Recipharm as its new CEO, while Moderna pinches Novartis’s chief legal officer. Meanwhile, there are high level changes at Univercells Technologies. It’s lovely to have you here for another BioProcess Insider’s, Ins & Outs. This week, Marc Funk announced on LinkedIn  that he has joined Recipharm as CEO. Funk has replaced contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) Recipharm’s former CEO, Thomas Eldered who had held this position since 2008. “It is a great pleasure to be…

March 17, 2021

Industry hot for cold chain technologies, says thermal packaging firm

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Cold Chain Technologies has scaled-up capacity after seeing an unprecedented demand for its services during the coronavirus pandemic. The thermal packaging solutions company, Cold Chain Technologies is part of the US government’s Operation Warp Speed (OWS) vaccine distribution plan and director of Corporate Development, Jamie Chasteen told BioProcess Insider it has seen a “huge bump†in demand since COVID-19. To meet this demand, the firm opened a manufacturing plant in less than eight weeks in Lebanon, Tennessee in November 2020…

March 16, 2021

ConserV Bioscience and eTheRNA to develop HIV vaccine

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ConserV Bioscience and eTheRNA will share their expertise to develop an mRNA-based vaccine for HIV. The partnership will bring together ConserV’s services in identifying protective antigens and eTheRNA’s TriMix immunostimulatory mRNA technology and novel lipid nanoparticle encapsulation technologies. “We will first collaborate on an mRNA vaccine against HIV,†Tim Van Assche, director of Business Development and Alliance Management at eTheRNA Immunotherapies told BioProcess Insider. “In case results are positive, the collaboration will be extended to other mRNA vaccine formulations based…

March 15, 2021

GSK expands its manufacturing capacity at CGT Catapult

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Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult says GlaxoSmithKline is expanding its clinical trial manufacturing capacity in Stevenage, UK to drive its gene therapy pipeline.  No financial details have been disclosed, however through this agreement GSK is set to leverage the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT Catapult) Stevenage facility to improve its GMP cell processing network and, in turn, streamline technical transfer and develop its gene therapy pipeline. “GSK is the seventh collaborator to join and this increases further the breadth…

March 12, 2021

Univercells Technologies teams with High Purity New England for distribution

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High Purity New England (HPNE) will market and sell Univercells Technologies’ products in the US after the two firms enter an agreement. No financials are connected to the agreement, however HPNE is now an authorized distributor of the firm’s technology offerings, which includes the Nevoline Upstream platform, the scale-X carbo system, and the scale-X hydro system. “The goal is to increase reach, expand the sales pipeline and further build the supply and service organization, recognizing the importance of being closer…

March 11, 2021