Author Archives: Millie Nelson

Wacker acquires plasmid DNA manufacturer Genopis for $39m

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The German chemical company Wacker takes over Genopis from Helixmith, adding plasmid DNA to its CDMO offering. In 2018, Helixmith (formerly ViroMed) and private equity firm, Medivate Partners created Genopis. Wacker paid $39 million in cash for Genopis with the potential for further payment depending on performance-based payments under a so-called earn-out model. The deal is expected to close in Q1, 2021. Wacker will continue Genopis’ current customer relationships as a contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) for plasmid DNA (pDNA).…

February 4, 2021

Merck partners with Artiva to develop off-the-shelf CAR-NK therapies

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Merck & Co. has paid Artiva Biotherapeutics $30 million to develop up to three off-the-shelf CAR-NK cell therapies. On top of the $30 million Artiva has received for the first two programs, an additional $15 million will be paid by Merck (known as MSD outside of North America) if they decide to opt for a third program. Artiva has the potential to receive up to $612 million per program depending on future development, commercial milestones and global sales of the…

February 3, 2021

Just-Evotec Biologics expands COVID-19 contract with DOD

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Just-Evotec Biologics has entered an agreement worth $28.6 million with the Department of Defense to manufacture monoclonal antibodies for the development of anti-SARS-CoV-2. The collaboration started in July 2020 and resulted in rapid process development and manufacturing of mAbs against COVID-19. To meet the expanded contract obligations, the firm will use its J.POD facility in Redmond, Washington – 15 miles east of Seattle – to manufacture SARS-CoV-2 mAbs as a potential treatment for COVID-19. The firm has said it will…

February 2, 2021

Sartorius on target for €5bn sales by 2025

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Sartorius has increased its 2025 target to €5 billion given robust financial results achieved in its Bioprocess Solutions (BPS) Division in 2020. Sartorius reported its Q4 2020 financials this week, revealing that total sales revenues rose to €2.3 billion ($2.8 billion) a 30% increase compared to 2019. The firm also told shareholders its order intake is up around 49% to 2.83 billion. The firm said its BPS division has experienced sharp rises in revenue and earnings, aided by its role…

February 1, 2021

Novartis cracks on with tech transfer with eye for US Leqvio approval

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Novartis says transferring the manufacturing of Leqvio (inclisiran) to its own site in Austria is not related to documentation issues at its CDMO. Novartis reported its Q4 financials this week, detailing that it is working with the US FDA to minimize further delays in the approval of siRNA therapy, Leqvio. While the therapy has been approved in Europe, a complete response letter (CRL) received in December highlighted problems at contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) CordenPharma in Italy. Novartis now hopes…

January 28, 2021

LinkedIn lowdown: Without staff, what good is manufacturing space?

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Professionals suggest that manufacturing capacity concerns in the cell and gene therapy space have lessened but a lack of adequate staffing is a growing fear. Conversation’s like this usually happen on the floor of exhibition centers. However, while face to face events are months away, BioProcess Insider has turned to LinkedIn to explore online discussions. Last week, vice president of Business Development at Cellares, Mark Flower posted “Has the industry reached the point that manufacturing capacity concerns have lessened or…

January 26, 2021

MA center aims to speed up manufacturing for researchers, says Cytiva

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A $76 million innovation and manufacturing center will alleviate production backlogs of up to 18 months, says founding member Cytiva. The Massachusetts Center for Advanced Biological Innovation and Manufacturing (CABIM) will partner with industry and academia to reduce backlogs which impact critical research and development. The $76 million in financing was led by Harvard University and supported by other founding members: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, Alexandria Real Estate Equities and Cytiva (formerly known as GE Healthcare…

January 22, 2021

Sheer magnetism: Gamma Biosciences to acquire BioMagnetic Solutions

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Gamma Biosciences will buy cell selection and bioseparation company BioMagnetic Solutions to support development for advanced therapies. Funded by investment firm KKR, Gamma Biosciences is a growing portfolio of life science tools companies. The latest acquisition of BioMagnetic Solutions provides access to various resources and support needed to develop and commercialize X-GRAFFE, an immunomagnetic cell selection system based on the principle of using antibodies or other affinity ligands attached to magnetic particles. “When the antibody binds to a target (e.g.…

January 21, 2021

Regeneron confident it can scale-up to meet US COVID MAb demands

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Regeneron has entered an agreement worth $2.625 billion with the US government and believes it can supply 1.25 million additional doses of its monoclonal antibody cocktail for COVID-19.   The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)and the Department of Defense (DOD) will purchase finished doses of the antibody cocktail, REGN-COV2, a combination of casirivimab and imdevimab by June as part of Operation Warp Speed (OWS). The new agreement comes after the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA)  granted Regeneron…

January 21, 2021

CDMO round-up: News from Baxter, AMRI, Lonza and Fujifilm

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Baxter announces agreement with Novavax; BARDA adds AMRI facility; Lonza collaborates with Capricor to develop candidate; Fujifilm will help to manufacture Novavax’s COVID-19 candidate. Great to have you here for Bioprocess Insider’s CDMO round-up. First up in our contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) round-up is Baxter BioPharma Solutions, which recently  confirmed a sterile manufacturing agreement for Novavax COVID-19 vaccine, NVX-CoV2373. “Baxter’s sterile manufacturing services will take place at our facility located in Halle/Westfalen, Germany using existing manufacturing capacity. The facility has…

January 18, 2021