Facilities

Biogen prepares to step up manufacturing to support Alzheimer's launch

12-Feb-2020 By Nick Taylor

Biogen readies manufacturing operation to meet anticipated “large demand” for Alzheimer’s disease drug.

GSK separation leads to 935 jobs cuts from vaccine business

11-Feb-2020 By Vassia Barba

GSK announces plans to separate out its consumer health business and cut 935 roles from its vaccines business in Belgium.

Amgen looks to biologics manufacturing tech to cut carbon emissions

11-Feb-2020 By Nick Taylor

Amgen commits to next-generation biologics manufacturing technologies in attempt to reduce environmental impact.

Consolidation continues as Catalent lays down $330m for MaSTherCell

05-Feb-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

Catalent provides another example of the trend by bigger CDMO to snatch up smaller cell and gene therapy specialists.

Takeda set to divest $400m Irish facility

04-Feb-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

The facility was completed prior to Takeda’s acquisition of Shire and is now deemed surplus to requirements.

WuXi Biologics advises clients against China travel during Wuhan outbreak

03-Feb-2020 By Nick Taylor

Chinese CDMO WuXi Biologics advises clients against travelling for face-to-face meeting during the Wuhan outbreak.

Merck builds €250m biotech R&D facility in Switzerland

30-Jan-2020 By Vassia Barba

Merck to build a Biotech Development Center that will deliver clinical trial material for its R&D pipeline.

Kamada raises $25M to pick up products to fill manufacturing facility

30-Jan-2020 By Nick Taylor

Kamada sells shares to private equity group to support push to fill capacity at plasma production site.

Bellicum offloads cell therapy plant in switch to outsourced production

28-Jan-2020 By Nick Taylor

Bellicum sells cell therapy manufacturing plant to MD Anderson Cancer Center, strikes master service agreement.

Krystal Biotech continues internal buildout with second facility

28-Jan-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

The gene therapy company breaks ground on a backup facility ahead of the potential commercial launch of its lead therapy, B-VEC.

Pharming plant gets EMA approval, easing Ruconest supply pressures

27-Jan-2020 By Nick Taylor

Pharming receives European approval for manufacturing plant, significantly expanding capacity.

New CDMO plans $1.1bn cell and gene therapy plant

27-Jan-2020 By Nick Taylor

A newly founded CDMO has outlined plans to invest $1.1bn to become the world’s biggest cell and gene therapy service provider.

Large pharma focusing on in-house biologic manufacture, not outsourcing

24-Jan-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

Capital expenditure is rising across the pharma industry as portfolios and pipelines shift towards biologics, but the largest companies are sticking to in-house production.

GE Healthcare anticipates demand with Swiss facility investment

23-Jan-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

GE Healthcare reacts to the number of regenerative medicine companies operating globally by announcing plans for a facility to create single-use kits and advanced therapies.

PACT Pharma raises $75M to expand cell therapy manufacturing

23-Jan-2020 By Nick Taylor

PACT Pharma reels in Series C financing round to support expansion of cell therapy manufacturing capacity.

Celltrion set to build largest biopharma plant in China

22-Jan-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

The South Korean company plans to invest ₩600bn over a five-year period to support the construction of its first facility in China.

Nationwide Children’s Hospital creates for-profit gene therapy CMO

20-Jan-2020 By Nick Taylor

Nationwide Children’s Hospital creates Andelyn Biosciences to provide gene therapy manufacturing services.

WuXi Biologics acquires first EU drug product facility through Bayer deal

16-Jan-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

WuXi Biologics will add Bayer’s Leverkusen drug product facility, as part of its continued expansion into the European market.

Yposkesi doubles manufacturing footprint to meet AAVs growing demand

14-Jan-2020 By Vassia Barba

Yposkesi CDMO announces expansion to cover growing demand, strikes a deal on viral vectors production for a gene therapy development project.

Bristol-Myers offloads manufacturing plant to Catalent

13-Jan-2020 By Nick Taylor

Catalent buys Italian manufacturing and packaging plant from Bristol-Myers Squibb, adding oral solid, biologics and sterile product capacity.

UCB commits €300m to biologics manufacturing plant

08-Jan-2020 By Nick Taylor

UCB outlines plans to invest €300m in Belgian biologics plant, creating 150 jobs.

CDMO JOINN Biologics raises $60m to build biotech plant

18-Dec-2019 By Nick Taylor

JOINN Biologics raises $60m Series A round to fund construction of Beijing facility.

Pfizer eyes yield gains from doing gene therapy production in-house

09-Dec-2019 By Nick Taylor

Pfizer tips $500m investment in gene therapy plant to improve yield, purity and characterization.

Astellas in $3bn gene therapy acquisition, highlights manufacturing capabilities

04-Dec-2019 By Ben Hargreaves

Astellas agrees deal for Audentes, which has a pipeline of gene therapies and large-scale manufacturing capabilities.

Novartis opens cell and gene therapy facility ahead of time

03-Dec-2019 By Ben Hargreaves

The Swiss manufacturing facility will be responsible for the manufacture of cell and gene therapies, including Kymriah.

‘Insatiable’ demand drives up expectations for Catalent's gene therapy unit

03-Dec-2019 By Nick Taylor

Analyst increases estimate of revenue potential of Catalent’s gene therapy unit in light of ‘insatiable’ demand.

WuXi Vaccines to build $240m facility in Ireland

27-Nov-2019 By Ben Hargreaves

WuXi Biologics furthers its manufacturing presence in Ireland with a manufacturing facility for its vaccines subsidiary, which will be able to produce both drug substance and drug product.

GE Healthcare pairs up with Pharmadule to expand KUBio offering

27-Nov-2019 By Vassia Barba

GE Healthcare assigns Pharmadule Morimatsu to expand the offering of its ‘factory in a box’, known as KUBio, enabling the scale-up of biologics manufacture.

Takeda plans 65% increase in plasma manufacturing capacity

26-Nov-2019 By Nick Taylor

Takeda commits to 65% increase in plasma manufacturing capacity to support business acquired in takeover of Shire.

Lilly heeds Trump to spend $400m on US manufacturing network

20-Nov-2019 By Ben Hargreaves

In addition to the capital investment to expand insulin manufacturing capabilities, the company will also create 100 jobs in the country.

Emerging markets are ‘blue oceans’ for biosimilars

18-Nov-2019 By Ben Hargreaves

The high growth rate in the uptake of biologics in emerging markets represents a major opportunity for those companies developing biosimilars, suggests one pharma exec.

Vertex ramps up spending to support gene therapy manufacturing

07-Nov-2019 By Nick Taylor

Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ move into genetic therapies triggers a planned escalation of its manufacturing and research spending.

Gilead defends investment in cell therapy manufacturing

05-Nov-2019 By Nick Taylor

Gilead’s continued investment in cell therapy manufacturing capabilities, at a time when sales at the nascent business unit are flatlining, was called into question by investors.

Automating cell and gene therapy manufacture ‘has to be accelerated’, says Lonza CEO

04-Nov-2019 By Ben Hargreaves

Marc Funk explains how the company is ensuring it has the right people in place to move advanced therapies forward and into the future of manufacture.

Merck forced to borrow half of CDC stockpiles of Gardasil to meet demand

30-Oct-2019 By Ben Hargreaves

Merck announces that it has reallocated Gardasil from the US CDC stockpiles, as a surge in demand sees revenues from the vaccine rise 26% year-on-year.

Bluebird tweaks gene therapy manufacture to clear barrier to launch

29-Oct-2019 By Nick Taylor

Bluebird refines gene therapy manufacturing specifications, setting it up to treat first patient with $1.8m beta-thalassemia drug later this year.

‘Creating a learning environment’ necessary to keep up with biopharma evolution

25-Oct-2019 By Ben Hargreaves

The pace of development in the industry sees greater demand for a trained workforce, which is leading away from ‘classroom’ to technology-assisted working environments, says training lead at Zenith.

Mesoblast and Lonza agree commercial manufacture of allogeneic cell therapy

22-Oct-2019 By Ben Hargreaves

Lonza will manufacture mesoblast’s lead cell therapy ahead of a planned US market launch, which could occur next year.

Sanofi begins global digital-enhancement manufacturing project

16-Oct-2019 By Ben Hargreaves

Sanofi opens its Massachusetts, US-based facility that will use digital technology for continuous biologic production, with similar plants planned in Canada, Brazil, Ireland, France, and Belgium.

J&J completes €300m Irish expansion, adding 200 jobs

08-Oct-2019 By Ben Hargreaves

J&J announces the opening of its manufacturing building in Cork, Ireland, which expands the production capacity of the biopharmaceutical supply chain facility.

Top five stories from September

04-Oct-2019 By Ben Hargreaves

The news most interesting to our readers were those featuring collaborations, whether in the production of an Ebola vaccine, biosimilars entering new markets or creating new manufacturing modalities.

Astellas provides funding for US cell and gene therapy biotechs

03-Oct-2019 By Ben Hargreaves

Astellas to fund two biotech incubators, operated by LabCentral, to cultivate start-up companies focused on cell and gene therapies.

GSK invests $120m in genetics-focused US manufacturing hub

26-Sep-2019 By Ben Hargreaves

GSK’s biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility will be focused on the company’s pipeline of biologic medicines, including gene therapies, and vaccines.

CGT Catapult doubles capacity to accelerate manufacturing

25-Sep-2019 By Ben Hargreaves

CGT Catapult adds six additional clean room spaces to its Stevenage manufacturing center, to aid companies readying themselves for clinical and commercial manufacture.

Merck announces scale-up plans for Ebola vaccine production

18-Sep-2019 By Ben Hargreaves

Alongside receiving a priority review designation for its Ebola vaccine, Merck revealed that it planned to produce 650,000 additional doses.

Merz completes construction of new plant and filling line

17-Sep-2019 By Ben Hargreaves

Merz announces that it has completed the construction of a new plant for its botulinum neurotoxin product and unveils a ‘robot-controlled’ filling line.

GE Healthcare partners to create manufacturing suite for gene therapies

17-Sep-2019 By Ben Hargreaves

GE Healthcare teams up with Germfree to create a fully integrated, expandable manufacturing solution that is geared towards the development of ‘emerging biotherapeutics’.

Mallinckrodt agrees to sell CDMO business for $250m

11-Sep-2019 By Ben Hargreaves

Amid opioid lawsuits, Mallinckrodt looks to slim down its overall business by agreeing the sale of BioVectra to HIG.

Lonza works with Celltrion to ensure supply of Remsima drug substance

10-Sep-2019 By Ben Hargreaves

Lonza’s facility in Singapore will provide Celltrion with the drug substance product to meet demand for the latter’s Remsima biosimilar in the European and US market.

UPDATED

Trade secrets case sees biotech shutdown biosimilar production

09-Sep-2019 By Ben Hargreaves

Genentech reaches a settlement agreement with JHL Biotech, which sees the latter cease development of biosimilars to Genentech's products.