Manufacturing news in brief
pharmafile | July 27, 2009 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |Â Â GSKÂ
Pharmafocus presents a round-up of developments in manufacturing, including facility updates from Takeda, Merrion Pharma, Cambridge Major, Dendreon and GlaxoSmithKline, as well as staff layoffs at Amgen.
Takeda has officially opened a new manufacturing facility in Ireland to help it serve the pharmaceutical markets in Europe and the US. The multi-product plant is located in Bray and will make active pharmaceutical ingredients for the firm's diabetes and sleep disorder drugs.
Merrion Pharmaceuticals has bought a new facility in Dublin, Ireland, that will allow it significantly to expand its R&D capabilities, according to a report in RTE Business. The company said it paid 3.75 million euros ($5.33 million) for the unit, which is currently a manufacturing facility.
US contract manufacturer Cambridge Major Laboratories will officially open a new 120,000 sq. ft. manufacturing plant for active pharmaceutical ingredients in Germantown, Wisconsin, at the end of this month. The $35 million plant is a significant development for the firm as it takes it for the first time into the realm of commercial-scale API manufacturing. The company's original site in Germantown houses the company headquarters, a product development centre and small-volume manufacturing.
Amgen has laid off around 100 workers in its manufacturing and quality control units in Thousand Oaks, California, according to the Pacific Coast Business Times. The company said the action was a continuation of a staff reduction programme first put into place in 2007, with the latest action taken because it is consolidating some of its clinical manufacturing and quality activities. In April the firm reduced headcount at its clinical manufacturing unit in Bothell, Washington, by 100.
GlaxoSmithKline has retained a US specialist in enterprise management – Informance – to update the manufacturing systems at two facilities in the US. In a statement Informance said that manufacturers are under "tremendous pressure to increase product volume in their own plants, in order to reduce contract manufacturing and improve margins". GSK has brought the consultancy in for its plants in Clifton New Jersey, and Aitken, South Carolina.
Dendreon says it may open a new manufacturing plant in Georgia, according to a report in the Atlanta Business Chronicle. The company has earmarked around $80 million for the plant, which would be used to make its Provenge prostate cancer therapy, currently in late-stage development. Dendreon already has a manufacturing unit in Morris Plains, New Jersey, but will need additional capacity to make Provenge at commercial scale.
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