Deal-Making

Three-way collaboration looks to scalable purification for AAV

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The UK’s Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) will work with CDMO Cobra Biologics and vendor GE Healthcare to reduce the cost of making adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors. Funded by a £570,000 ($750,000) grant from Innovate UK, the three-way consortium is looking to increase the robustness and reduce costs for the manufacturing of adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors to feed the growing gene therapy space. The collaboration will see each player contribute its expertise. GE Healthcare’s Puridify fibre-based chromatography technology platform will…

September 27, 2018

Gene editing deal leaves Thermo Fisher ‘unique in offering TALENs and CRISPR’

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Thermo Fisher Scientific has increased its gene editing technology offering by licensing CRISPR/Cas9 technologies from the Broad Institute and ERS Genomics. Thermo Fisher will now be able to offer its biopharma customers several genome editing offerings through the in-license deals. “Genome editing has unlocked the door for researchers to begin understanding gene function, which is fundamental in unraveling and outlining basic biological processes and disease pathways,†said Helge Bastian, vice president and general manager of Synthetic Biology at Thermo Fisher…

September 24, 2018

Lonza targets both early and late-stage biotech in $415m Ibex expansion

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CDMO Lonza has invested CHF 400 million in a site in Switzerland to expand its Ibex Solutions business, adding end-to-end services for biotech customers. Contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Lonza has launched today Ibex Design and Ibex Develop, offering smaller biopharma companies complete product lifecycle management. The CHF 400 million ($415 million) expansion follows the launch of the Ibex Solutions service in July 2017, which saw the firm look to provide flexible production capacity for biotherapeutics through a biopark…

September 20, 2018

Eli Lilly on M&A: Balancing the science with the shareholders

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Many early-phase acquisitions do not make sense for shareholders despite having promising assets, says Lilly’s CFO Joshua Smiley. About a third of Lilly’s pipeline comes from M&A. Speaking to attendees at the Morgan Stanley Healthcare Conference Broker Conference Call this month, Eli Lilly CFO Joshua Smiley said his firm is “interested in doing early stage clinical deals where we see compelling scientific rationale in our key therapeutic areas and that we can upgrade our pipeline.†But deals also need to…

September 19, 2018

Video news: Pall strategic deals aim to enable biosimilar and novel scale-up

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Pall Corporation has inked separate partnerships with cell line and expression tech firms Celltheon and Aetos Biologics. The deals help enable both novel and biosimilar manufacturing, the firm says. At the 2018 BPI Conference in Boston, Massachusetts earlier this month, Pall Corporation announced it had entered into a strategic partnership with cell line and expression technology platform development company Celltheon Corporation.   The deal combines Pall’s bioprocessing equipment and consumables with Celltheon’s SMART Expression Platform to offer customers integrated systems…

September 18, 2018

B-I working with CMO on viral therapies after $245m ViraTherapeutics buy

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Boehringer Ingelheim has acquired ViraTherapeutics for €210 million ($245 million) and tells us how it will integrate the viral therapy firm into its oncology business. In September 2016, German biomanufacturer Boehringer Ingelheim partnered with Austrian based ViraTherapeutics GmbH to develop an oncolytic virus therapy platform and bring various programs through the clinic. As part of the deal, Boehringer Ingelheim had the right to acquire its collaborator after the conclusion of Phase I clinical development, something the firm has now undertaken…

September 17, 2018

Sanofi deal shows demand for CHO alternatives, says Dyadic

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Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland has teamed with Dyadic to test the potential of the C1 fungus-based expression system for the manufacture of biologics and vaccines. The fully funded proof of concept research deal will see Sanofi-Aventis use Dyadic International’s C1 platform to overcome specific gene expression challenges across some of its vaccine and protein-based biologics “Sanofi sees huge value in C1 and the future of bioprocessing and biomanufacturing efficiencies with such a power horse and we are excited for the collaboration as…

September 12, 2018

Shire buys sanaplasma AG to support immunology business

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Shire adds 14 centers to its European-based plasma collection network through an acquisition aimed at extending long-term plasma supply. Plasma is essential to the manufacture of immunoglobulin therapies for certain rare immunological diseases. Shire, which prides itself on orphan and hemophilia drugs, has more than 100 plasma collection centers in the US and Austria and has further expanded its presence through the acquisition of sanaplasma AG. “The transaction was an acquisition of 100% of sanaplasma AG,†Shire spokesperson Paris Barker…

September 11, 2018

Thermo Fisher back on the M&A train through BD buy

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The addition of BD’s Advanced Bioprocessing business will boost Thermo Fisher Scientific’s cell culture media formulations offering. At the BioProcess International Conference in Boston, Massachusetts last week, news broke that equipment and reagent supplier Thermo Fisher agreed to buy the Advanced Bioprocessing business of medtech firm Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD). The business, which clocks in around $100 million (€86 million) annually, will add several peptones that enhance cell culture media formulations, aimed at improving yield and reduce variability in…

September 11, 2018

Sartorius combination tech deal a ‘win-win,’ says Repligen

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Bioprocessing vendors Sartorius Stedim Biotech and Repligen Corporation have combined their bioreactor technologies to offer control integrated bioreactors for perfusion. Announced at the BioProcess International Conference in Boston this week, Sartorius and Repligen have inked a deal to integrate their respective technologies into a combined offering for biomanufacturers. Under terms of the deal, Repligen’s XCell ATF cell retention control technology will be combined into Sartorius’ BIOSTAT STR large-scale single-use bioreactors offering customers bioreactors used in perfusion cell culture applications between 50…

September 5, 2018