Bioreactors

Single-use will never fully replace stainless, say biologics makers

29-Apr-2015 By Dan Stanton

The plant of the future will be increasingly equipped with disposable technology but single-use will never fully replace stainless steel, according to biomanufacturers at a recent industry event.

Bio-CMO sector to grow over 40% on Big Biopharma's burgeoning pipelines

24-Apr-2015 By Dan Stanton

Cheaper disposable manufacturing techs and increased demand for outsourced production will see more CMOs enter the contracting sector according to HighTech Business Decisions

DISPATCHES FROM BPI 2015

Virtual Sterility? GE uses Xbox tech to showcase products

15-Apr-2015 By Dan Stanton

GE Healthcare has embraced Xbox Kinect technology to virtually demonstrate its upstream and downstream offerings at tradeshows.

Rentschler expands biomanufacturing line with GE’s automated liquid chromatography system

15-Apr-2015 By Zachary Brennan

CDMO Rentschler Biotechnologie has added GE's 1000th ÄKTAprocess, which is an automated liquid chromatography system built for process scale-up and large-scale biopharma, at its site in Laupheim, Germany.

Japan's yen for regenerative meds: Fujifilm to buy Cellular Dynamics

01-Apr-2015 By Gareth Macdonald

Fujifilm will buy Cellular Dynamics International (CDI) for $307m to add induced stem cells to its offering and further build in regenerative medicines.

update

Novasep joins Lonza as Mydicar API producer in deal with Celladon

25-Mar-2015 By Gareth Macdonald

Novasep and Lonza will both make the API for Celladon's heart attack therapy, Mydicar.

Rentschler brings single-use system online

23-Mar-2015 By Gareth Macdonald

Rentschler Biotechnologie has increased single-use bioreactor capacity at its manufacturing site in Laupheim, Germany and is moving forward with plans to invest €25m ($27m) in a new stainless steel system in the next few months.

Biobetters may fare better than biosimilars in some therapeutic areas, says analyst

11-Mar-2015 By Gareth Macdonald

Biobetters stand a better chance of winning market share than lower cost biosimilars in some indications according to new analysis.

Orgenesis buys cell therapy CMO to cut manufacturing costs and diversify revenue stream

11-Mar-2015 By Gareth Macdonald

Orgenesis has bought Masthercell SA to take control of production of its Type 1 diabetes cell therapy candidate ahead of clinical trials.

Production of wart drug with anti Ebola potential set to restart in New Jersey

05-Mar-2015 By Gareth Macdonald

Hemispherx will make a candidate Ebola treatment being trialled by the US military at its revamped plant in New Jersey.

VWR expands deal with enzymes firm NEB in latest biopharma-focused expansion

03-Mar-2015 By Gareth Macdonald

VWR has expanded its distribution deal with industrial enzymes firm New England Biolabs (NEB) in its latest biopharma-focused move.

Hemispherx upgrades New Jersey Alferon plant months after drug shows anti-Ebola efficacy

03-Mar-2015 By Gareth Macdonald

Hemispherx has installed a 600 litre bioreactor at its manufacturing facility in New Jersey and plans to seek approval to restart production of its alpha interferon product, Alferon N Injection.

Repligen finishes plant expansion and forecasts higher tech revenues in 2015

13-Feb-2015 By Gareth Macdonald

Repligen has finished an expansion at its US filtration system facility eight months after bolstering its offering in this area by buying a platform from Refine Technology.

Boehringer and VTU extend yeast-based expression system tech deal

10-Feb-2015 By Dan Stanton

Boehringer-Ingelheim has renewed its collaboration with VTU technology to develop a yeast-based protein expression system for biopharmaceutical production.

Provenge in a dish not yet sold: Valeant ups Dendreon offer after competing bids

06-Feb-2015 By Gareth Macdonald

Bankrupt cell therapy firm Dendreon has attracted more suitors according to stalking horse bidder Valeant, which upped its offer for the Provenge (sipuleucel-T) developer to $400m this week.

Thermo Fisher buys ASI but will consolidation drive innovation in single-use?

06-Feb-2015 By Dan Stanton

Thermo Fisher has acquired bioprocessing equipment maker ASI for $300m (€260m) in the latest example of consolidation in the single-use industry.

US dollar prompts ThermoFisher to predict flat revs in 2015 and move reagents to Lithuania

30-Jan-2015 By Gareth Macdonald

ThermoFisher has forecast flat sales and earnings in 2015, warning that weaker currencies in key markets will offset higher biopharma spending.

Sartorius: US fully embracing single-use as bioprocess unit leads 13% growth

29-Jan-2015 By Dan Stanton

The US has caught up with Europe in adopting single-use technologies, says Sartorius which reported a 32% growth in sales for the region in 2014.

Protein Sciences turns to Japan for manufacturing Flublok for Asia

06-Jan-2015 By Zachary Brennan

Flu vaccine maker Protein Sciences, and Japan-based UMN Pharma and IHI Corp. have entered into an agreement to assess the feasibility of sourcing the active ingredients of Flublok influenza vaccine from Japan.

Sartorius sells Intec to focus on bioprocessing and lab

05-Jan-2015 By Gareth Macdonald

Sartorius AG has announced plans to sell its industrial weighing and control tech business, Intec, as part of a long-term strategy to focus on bioprocessing and laboratory equipment.

Peregrine expanding own CMO to make mAb candidate rather than outsource

11-Dec-2014 By Dan Stanton

Peregrine Pharmaceuticals is expanding its contract manufacturing capacity to meet growing client demand and to produce its own monoclonal antibody bavituximab, the company has revealed.

Pall up on single-use and steel hybrid bioprocessing systems

26-Nov-2014 By Dan Stanton

A hybrid of disposable and stainless steel systems will remain the biomanufacturing model for the near future, says Pall reporting a robust first quarter 2015.

Amgen launches $200m biomanufacturing facility in Singapore

21-Nov-2014 By Zachary Brennan

Amgen has completed construction of its first $200m next-gen biomanufacturing facility in Singapore, which is outfitted with single-use technology to allow for greater flexibility.

Industry onboard with single-use but still 'chroma-phobic,' says EMD Millipore

19-Nov-2014 By Dan Stanton

Single-use continues to be adopted by the bioprocessing industry, but drugmakers are still hesitant to use disposable chromatography systems, says EMD Millipore.

GE sets up in Istanbul in bid to capture a share of Turkish tech market

14-Nov-2014 By Gareth Macdonald

Turkey’s efforts to increase local biopharmaceutical production have prompted GE Healthcare Life Sciences to set up a biopharmaceutical technology training centre in Istanbul.

Amgen files FDA petition, lawsuit seeking info on Sandoz biosimilar manufacturing

07-Nov-2014 By Zachary Brennan

The petition with the US FDA signals Amgen’s anger over Sandoz’s failure to disclose certain information from its biosimilar application, including how the biosimilar is manufactured.

Dispatches from AAPS

Extractables & leachables the biggest barrier to SU adoption, says WuXi

07-Nov-2014 By Dan Stanton

Extractables & leachables are the number one problem holding back the adoption and scale-up of single-use technology, according to a WuXi Apptech Director.

Vendors' role in single-use plant design could cut costs, says M+W

04-Nov-2014 By Dan Stanton

Single-use vendors could help cut costs in designing and building biopharma facilities, according to engineering firm M+W.

BioSilta hopes to grow growth systems business with new UK headquarters

29-Oct-2014 By Gareth Macdonald

The UK beats Finland for business opportunities according to the CEO of microbial growth system developer BioSilta, who said moving the firm to St. Ives, Cambridgeshire has improved its access to larger markets.

dispatches from bioprocess international

Pall, Thermo Scientific, Fujifilm, Merck Millipore unveil new upstream, downstream offerings

24-Oct-2014 By Zachary Brennan

The products, unveiled at BioProcess International in Boston this week, will help industry with their upstream and downstream processing and include an anti-CHO host cell protein detection kit, the first single-use fermentor, and a new mammalian expression...

Single-use vendors play vital role in biopharma supply chain, says Sartorius

22-Oct-2014 By Dan Stanton

Close relationships between vendors and biomanufacturers are critical according to Sartorius, which was been awarded an accolade for the design of WuXi AppTec’s biologics production facility in China.

Dispatches from BioProcess International

Shift to single-use means end users ceding more control to suppliers, experts say

22-Oct-2014 By Zachary Brennan

As single-use technology replaces traditional stainless steel technology in biomanufacturing, suppliers will own a larger portion of the supply chain, which is creating anxiety for end users such as Pfizer and Merck, experts say.

Future trends: Rise of mAbs and fall of 20,000L bioreactors says consultant

17-Oct-2014 By Dan Stanton

Increased efficiency, local manufacturing and specialty products are driving demand for smaller more flexible facilities, according to bioprocessing consultant Howard Levine.

Sabic: Compatible plastics to cut costs and up safety in single-use bioreactors

10-Oct-2014 By Dan Stanton

Biomanufacturing costs and the risk of extractables and leachables can be reduced by developing more compatible plastics, Sabic told Biopharma-Reporter.com at CPhI in Paris.

DISPATCHES FOM TECHNOPHARM, NUREMBERG

MAb production driving continuous fermentation, says GEA

01-Oct-2014 By Dan Stanton

Development of continuous fermentation has been driven by the increased production of monoclonal antibodies says GEA, with Asia-Pacific the new growth driver for such technologies.

Pre CPhI Special

How green was my Valium? Not very, despite industry claims

01-Oct-2014 By Gareth Macdonald

Making active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) is a dirty business and you’d have to be pretty green to believe claims drug industry 'demand' will create a $100bn market for environmentally-friendly production methods by 2020.

GSK begins manufacturing 10,000 Ebola vaccine doses for WHO

30-Sep-2014 By Zachary Brennan

As more than half a dozen companies are now vying to help treat and vaccinate Ebola victims in West Africa, where nearly 3,000 people have died from the illness, GlaxoSmithKline is taking the lead in getting product manufactured.

Mega deals like Merck-Sigma cut biopharma bargaining power says leading CMO

24-Sep-2014 By Gareth Macdonald

Life science sector consolidation is a concern for some biomanufacturers, who say mega mergers like Merck KGaA’s $17bn acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich will limit their ability to negotiate on prices.

RLS to make India's first Remicade biosimilar for Epirus and Ranbaxy

23-Sep-2014 By Dan Stanton

Reliance Life Sciences has been contracted to make the first Indian biosimilar of J&J’s Remicade (infliximab), though Epirus Biopharmaceuticals says it is looking to Fujifilm for its European supply.

Genzyme looks to integrate up and downstream for continuous biomanufacturing

19-Sep-2014 By Dan Stanton

Genzyme has filed a patent application for a technology platform that will bridge the gap between upstream and downstream processing in continuous biomanufacturing.

Sartorius on environmental concerns: 'Single-use is greener, if not cleaner'

03-Sep-2014 By Dan Stanton

The environmental impact of single-use biosystems remains lower than stainless steel despite difficulties in the disposal of bioreactor bags, says Sartorius.

Expert: Use fluid dynamics to navigate murky waters during scale-up

03-Sep-2014 By Gareth Macdonald

Biopharmas scaling-up production should use fluid dynamics to make better predictions about bioreactor performance according to one expert, who says engineers can use it to test multiple configurations more rapidly.

Stem cells made available for API development by European biobank

02-Sep-2014 By Gareth Macdonald

A German biobank has made stem cells available to active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) firms this week in a bid to support industry drug development efforts.

Single-use growth outpacing stainless steel, says acquisition-hungry Pall

29-Aug-2014 By Dan Stanton

Acquisitions in the single-use tech space helped drive growth in fiscal 2014 according to Pall, which plans to continue its two-pronged M&A strategy.

Yearning for Yen? Merck Millipore bids to boost Japanese biz with test centre

27-Aug-2014 By Gareth Macdonald

Merck Millipore has set out to win more biomanufacturing business in Japan by consolidating testing and technical operations in the country into a newly expanded Tokyo training hub.

Patheon propels itself into US biologics market in Gallus acquisition

27-Aug-2014 By Dan Stanton

Patheon has acquired Gallus BioPharmaceuticals adding two US biologics plants and says with an industry shift towards medium sized bioreactors it now holds the market advantage.

Janssen acquires Fynomer mAb platform in Covagen buy-out

26-Aug-2014 By Fiona Barry

Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen has acquired monoclonal antibody (mAb) platform FynomAb through its purchase of private Swiss biopharma company Covagen.

Correction

BioPharma-Reporter

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