Pharma manufacturing news in brief
pharmafile | December 20, 2011 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |Â Â ADC Biotechnology, BioMarin, GE Healthcare, Lonza and Neptune Technologies, M+W GroupÂ
Facility news from BioMarin, Lonza and Neptune Technologies, plus plans to boost biomanufacturing capacity in the developing world and new technology for antibody-drug conjugates.
BioMarin Pharmaceutical‘s manufacturing facility expansion in Novato, California, has been recommended for approval by European Medicine Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP). The EMA is now due to deliver its final verdict on the facility in the first quarter of 2012, while the US FDA gave it a green light last month. The new capacity is expected to support around $1 billion in revenue for the company’s enzyme replacement portfolio, which includes complex glycoprotein products produced by mammalian cells.
GE Healthcare has formed a strategic alliance with M+W Group to tackle the lack of access to biopharmaceuticals in emerging countries. The collaboration aims to make nations around the world self-sufficient in the manufacture of vital biopharmaceuticals such as vaccines, insulin and biosimilars, thereby reducing their dependence on imports. The two firms will work on developing cost-competitive approach to biomanufacturing plant construction that can be offered to national governments and local drugmakers.
Wales-based ADC Biotechnology has won £450,000 in private and government funding to help develop a low-cost production technology for antibody-drug conjugates that will be offered under license to other pharma companies. The money for the project – which focuses on polymer-based purification technology – has been provided by Finance Wales, a consortium of private investors led by Acceleris, the Welsh Government and Denbighshire County Council.
Swiss contract manufacturing company Lonza says it is expanding its early-phase manufacturing capacity in Nansha, China, to help it to meet the “growing demands of its global small-molecule customers”. The site currently operates two small scale trains supplying clinical material, three large scale API trains for metric tons, and GMP laboratories to meet gram-scale demands. The small scale capacity has been increased with a new GMP kilo-lab and an additional small scale train.
Canada’s Neptune Technologies and Bioressources, which makes phospholipid products for the pharma and dietary supplement industries, has started expanding its manufacturing facility in Sherbrooke, Quebec, with the aim of boosting capacity by 150,000 kg per year within the next 12 months. The overall aim is to boost production of its krill oil material to 500,000kg a year. Pharmaceuticals based on krill-oil phospholipids are in development at Neptune’s subsidiaries Acasti Pharma and NeuroBioPharma, including lead candidate CaPre which is in Phase II trials in patients with hypertriglyceridaemia.
Phil Taylor
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