Fill-Finish & Packaging

Ardena buys Spain’s Idifarma in move to capitalize on emerging biotech segment

06-Sep-2021 By Jane Byrne

Ardena has acquired Idifarma, a contract manufacturer of niche and highly potent generic and innovative drugs, from Suanfarma; the deal enables it to expand across Southern Europe and supports its strategy to become a leading global CDMO.

BioNTech looks at mRNA vaccine manufacturing options in Rwanda and Senegal

29-Aug-2021 By Rachel Arthur

BioNTech is looking at establishing vaccine manufacturing capabilities in Rwanda and Senegal to support long-term vaccine supply in Africa.

EMA gives green light to additional mRNA COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing facilities

26-Aug-2021 By Rachel Arthur

The European Medicines Agency’s human medicines committee (EMA CHMP) has this week approved additional manufacturing capacity for Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.

Lonza to establish drug product manufacturing capacity at Chinese facility

24-Aug-2021 By Jane Byrne

Lonza is to install a new drug product fill and finish manufacturing line at its Guangzhou site in China.

Special Edition: Meeting demand for viral vectors

Polyplus launches transfection reagent for large scale viral vector production

18-Aug-2021 By Jane Byrne

Recombinant adeno-associated viruses (rAAVs) are becoming the vector of choice for delivering gene therapies, says the French firm.

COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers show ‘sizable demand’ for vials out to 2023

16-Aug-2021 By Nick Taylor

There is “sizable demand” from manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccines for vials out to 2023, suggesting that the market will remain significant for some time.

Ardena ploughs €35m into sites to future proof CDMO services

15-Jul-2021 By Jane Byrne

Ardena is investing €35m (US$41.3m) in expansion projects across its European operations.

Fujifilm continues to expand its biologics CDMO business, ploughing further $850m into US and UK sites

08-Jul-2021 By Jane Byrne

Fujifilm Corporation has made an additional US$850m investment to enable the expansion of its BIO-CMDO sites in the UK, at Billingham, and in the US.

EMA backs active substance scale-up at Janssen’s COVID-19 vaccine site in the Netherlands

05-Jul-2021 By Jane Byrne

The committee for human medicines (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has approved a scale-up of the active substance manufacturing process at a Janssen Biologics BV site in the Netherlands.

EMA approves additional J&J vaccine manufacturing site

29-Jun-2021 By Ben Hargreaves

The agency allows fill-finish activities for Janssen’s COVID-19 vaccine to take place at Catalent’s Italian site.

Lonza to provide manufacturing for ValenzaBio from China facility

23-Jun-2021 By Ben Hargreaves

Lonza will provide drug substance and product manufacturing for the biotech’s anti-IGF-1R antibody.

New BD plant set for Spain aims to meet growing demand for PFS

20-May-2021 By Jane Byrne

Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) is to build a new plant in Zaragoza, Spain, with an investment of €165m (US$200m). The site will produce glass pre-filled syringes and plastic components.

Protalix to propose virtual inspection to clear barrier to FDA approval

20-May-2021 By Nick Taylor

Protalix BioTherapeutics is planning to propose a virtual or record review inspection to clear the barrier to approval of its Chiesi Farmaceutici-partnered Fabry disease treatment.

BioNTech to build mRNA manufacturing facility in Singapore

10-May-2021 By Rachel Arthur

BioNTech plans to expand its global footprint with a regional headquarters for South East Asia in Singapore; as well as a fully integrated mRNA manufacturing facility.

COVID-19: Meissner secures $13.4m BARDA award to produce single-use systems

03-May-2021 By Jane Byrne

Meissner Filtration Products has just been awarded a US$13.4m contract from the US government agency, BARDA, to boost its production capability for components critical to vaccines and therapies linked to the COVID-19 response.

Moderna ramps up COVID-19 vaccine supply to 3 billion doses in 2022

29-Apr-2021 By Rachel Arthur

Moderna has announced a set of additional investments to allow it to increase global supply of its COVID-19 vaccine. ‘We believe there will continue to be significant need for our vaccine into 2022 and 2023’, says the company.

Catalent looks to meet needs of expanding CGT market, completes expansion work at biologics drug substance facility

27-Apr-2021 By Jane Byrne

Contract development and manufacturing organization, Catalent, has invested in the capabilities at its clinical supply services facility in Philadelphia, in the US, to further support biotech firms developing cell and gene therapies.

Samsung Biologics and TG Therapeutics expand blood cancer partnership

27-Apr-2021 By Jane Byrne

US biopharma firm, TG Therapeutics, has announced an expanded contract manufacturing deal with Samsung Biologics to support the production of its investigational anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody, ublituximab.

Sanofi to help manufacture Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine in the US

27-Apr-2021 By Rachel Arthur

Sanofi will help manufacture up to 200 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine: marking the third COVID-19 vaccine it is involved in producing.

Baxter BioPharma Solutions to perform fill/finish services for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine

09-Mar-2021 By Rachel Arthur

Baxter BioPharma Solutions will provide fill/finish sterile manufacturing services and supply packaging for approximately 60-90 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine this year.

France ramps up COVID-19 vaccine production

10-Feb-2021 By Rachel Arthur

Three COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing sites are set to start production in France in the coming weeks: while the French government is seeking to boost further production with a €300m ($363m) initiative announced on Monday.

Vibalogics to establish presence in the US, ploughing US$150M into new virotherapy facility

17-Nov-2020 By Jane Byrne

Vibalogics has announced it is expanding its global footprint with a late phase clinical and commercial manufacturing facility near Boston, Massachusetts, a major milestone as it looks to advance its services to drug developers across the globe.

Thermo sees ‘very, very’ significant cold-chain demand as COVID-19 vaccines enter endgame

27-Oct-2020 By Nick Taylor

Thermo Fisher Scientific is seeing “very, very significant demand” for its cold storage range as the race to get COVID-19 vaccines to market enters its closing stages.

Fujifilm expands its gene therapy drug CDMO business

07-Oct-2020 By Jane Byrne

Fujifilm is boosting its gene therapy offering, taking the first steps to expand its viral vector contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) services to Europe, at the site of Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies (FDB) in the North East of...

COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing centre gains MHRA approval; ready to produce tens of millions of doses in the UK

06-Oct-2020 By Rachel Arthur

The UK’s Vaccines Manufacturing & Innovation Centre (VMIC) announces that the UK Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has approved the second of two GMP COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing suites located at Oxford Biomedica's...

‘Viral vector production demand will ultimately exceed the current global capacity’

23-Sep-2020 By Jane Byrne

Catalent recently announced that it is investing US$130m in an expansion project at its viral vector manufacturing facility located in Harmans, Maryland, with five new manufacturing suites set to respond to a growing customer pipeline and market demand.

Merck expands its HPAPI and ADC manufacturing capabilities, capacity

15-Sep-2020 By Jane Byrne

Merck's life science business division last week announced a US$65m expansion of its HPAPI and ADC manufacturing capabilities and capacity at its facility near Madison, Wisconsin.

Catalent secures further Covid-19 vaccine business with AstraZeneca

01-Sep-2020 By Jane Byrne

Catalent is to provide drug substance manufacturing to AstraZeneca for the University of Oxford’s adenovirus vector-based COVID-19 vaccine, AZD1222.

Catalent to invest $30m on clinical manufacturing site in France

21-Jul-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

The company invests into its clinical biologics formulation development and drug fill-finish services.

Moderna releases positive early vaccine data, signs fill-finish deal

16-Jul-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

The biotech provides more detail on Phase I study of its COVID-19 vaccine and agrees commercial fill-finish manufacturing.

Rentschler and Vetter cooperate to integrate services

09-Jul-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

The CDMOs will launch pilot projects to determine where collaboration may help streamline drug development.

Moderna secures fill-finish capabilities for COVID-19 vaccine

29-Jun-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

Moderna signs deal with Catalent for fill-finish services, shortly after AZ announced the same move.

Emergent in $75m expansion into viral vectors and gene therapy

22-Jun-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

The company will buildout its Massachusetts facility to provide CDMO services for viral vector and gene therapies.

Catalent to fill and package AZ’s COVID-19 vaccine

18-Jun-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

The CDMO seals a deal to provide vial filling and packaging services for the commercialization of AZ’s potential COVID-19 vaccine.

Fujifilm set to invest $928m into ex-Biogen facility

15-Jun-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

The company will have sunk nearly $2bn into the facility, after acquiring and planning to double its capacity.

SUSupport expands to bring in Indian partner

10-Jun-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

The Austrian startup provides its single-use equipment to PharmNXT in India.

US government doubles down with $143m syringe investment

09-Jun-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

Ramping up preparedness for potential COVID-19 vaccine, the US government awards SiO2 a contract for syringe and vials.

BARDA provides CDMO $628m to serve US government

02-Jun-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

Emergent receives funds to provide manufacturing capabilities to the US government for COVID-19 vaccine candidates.

GSK to ramp up vaccine adjuvant production to 1bn doses

29-May-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

The company will supply the adjuvant to partners’ COVID-19 vaccine candidates, without expecting to profit from sales.

UK injects funds into COVID-19 vaccine, puts citizens front of queue

19-May-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

UK government will invest into an existing vaccine developed by the Oxford University and will speed up completion of a vaccine manufacturing center.

US strikes $138m deal to ensure enough syringes for COVID-19 vaccine

13-May-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

US HHS provides funding in order to boost the number of prefilled syringes available for potential vaccine against coronavirus.

Pfizer and BioNTech work to scale up COVID-19 vaccine production

11-May-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

Pfizer identifies four facilities globally to produce vaccine, while BioNTech will increase production at its German facilities.

Ajinomoto to produce potential COVID-19 treatment for CytoDyn

05-May-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

Ajinomoto agrees partnership to manufacture leronlimab, which is currently undergoing clinical trials for the treatment of COVID-19.

Abbott, Insulet on ‘pay-as-you-go’ automated insulin delivery system

24-Feb-2020 By Vassia Barba

Abbott’s glucose sensing technology and a tubeless insulin delivery system developed by Insulet are set to create a personalized diabetes management solution.

AntTail tracks temperature changes from pallets to patients’ homes

20-Feb-2020 By Ben Hargreaves

AntTail builds an end-to-end application that is able to track temperature of medicine and detect evidence of tampering.

Testing service looks to ensure glass packaging adequacy

17-Feb-2020 By Vassia Barba

Glass packaging provider joins forces with a vacuum pump manufacturer to design a packaging testing service.

Almac, Pfizer reveal steps to slash gene therapy labeling times

12-Feb-2020 By Nick Taylor

Almac outlines work with Pfizer to quickly get patient-specific gene therapies to DMD patients.

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.

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.