The $40 million expansion will support production of single-use technology for vaccines and therapeutics at Thermo Fisher’s Pennsylvania facility. According to Thermo Fisher Scientific, the expansion of its single-use technology (SUT) manufacturing facility in Millersburg, Pennsylvania is part of a long-term $650 million investment the firm announced last March. Additionally, the investment will establish secure, scalable, reliable, and flexible bioprocessing production capacity for materials used in current and future biologics and vaccines, including COVID-19 treatments. “The integration of single use…

Merck & Co. says sales of its human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine franchise Gardasil could double by 2030 as “significant” capacity investments come online. For the full year, 2021, vaccines pulled in around $9.7 billion in sales revenues for Merck. The division was driven by Gardasil and Gardasil 9, which saw sales of $5.7 billion for the 12 months, up 44% on the year prior. As CFO Caroline Litchfield said during the firm’s end-of-year conference call, “underlying global demand for Gardasil…

With millions of COVID-19 doses on hand and reports that J&J has halted production, we ask whether it has changed its vaccine manufacturing strategy. This week the New York Times reported that Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has temporarily halted production of its COVID-19 vaccine from its Leiden, The Netherlands site claiming that it is producing an experimental “but potentially more profitable vaccine to protect against an unrelated virus,” instead. A spokesperson for J&J told BioProcess Insider its Leiden site “Continues…

AES says it will be able to meet current and future cleanroom demand through the construction of a facility in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, AES Clean Technology, a provider of cleanroom facilities within the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industry said the facility will expand its production capabilities to match industry growth, especially for clients responsible for the production of COVID-19 treatments and advanced bio-therapeutics. “We see several factors that are driving the decision to add this new capacity. There is a real…

The US FDA has revised the emergency use authorizations for Regeneron and Eli Lilly’s COVID-19 antibody treatments after the drugs proved ineffective against the omicron variant. Eli Lilly’s monoclonal antibody (mAb) treatments – bamlanivimab and etesevimab (administered together) and Regeneron’s REGEN-COV (casirivimab and imdevimab) will be limited to use only “if patients in certain geographic regions are likely to be infected or exposed to a variant that is susceptible to these treatments,” the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said…

Eli Lilly will invest $1 billion and create nearly 600 jobs at a site in North Carolina. Concurrently, the firm will build a $446 million biologics plant in Ireland. The new facility in Concord, North Carolina will make injectable products and devices, supporting the company’s capacity for its product portfolio and future pipeline. The investment will create nearly 600 jobs and was welcomed by North Carolina state governor Roy Cooper who stated that “Lilly’s choice brings more good jobs to…

64x Bio has received $55 million in a series A round of fundraising to fund the expansion of its VectorSelect platform. According to 64x Bio, a synthetic cell and gene therapy (CGT) manufacturer founded in 2020 and focused on addressing CGT manufacturing issues exposed by the Coronavirus pandemic, its cell line engineering technology, VectorSector has the potential to revolutionize the economics and accessibility of gene therapy. Led by Lifeforce Capital, with contribution from Northpond Ventures, Future Ventures and others ,…