Manufacturing facility news in brief
pharmafile | May 8, 2013 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |Â Â Expeditors, Novo Nordisk, Penn Pharma, Sagent Pharma, VertellusÂ
A round-up of new facility developments in the pharma sector, including updates from Novo Nordisk, Sagent, Penn Pharma, Vertellus and Expeditors.
Novo Nordisk has said it plans to spend 380 million kroner (around $70 million) upgrading its facility in Kalundborg, Denmark, to handle production of its candidate diabetes drug semaglutide (NN9535), a once-weekly GLP-1 analogue currently in Phase III trials. The investment will create around 50 new jobs at the site, which is Novo Nordisk’s largest facility employing upwards of 2,400 people. The converted plant is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2014.
Generic drugmaker Sagent Pharmaceuticals is buying joint venture partner Chengdu Kanghong Pharmaceuticals’ 50% share in a Chinese manufacturing facility for $25 million. The 300,000 sq. ft. plant concentrates on the production of sterile injectable drugs using isolator technology and should come online later this year, following a positive FDA inspection in 2012. The buyout will take place in stages and is due to compete in 2015.
Penn Pharma says it has produced the first batch of coated tablets in its new 15,000 sq. ft. facility in South Wales, which specialises in the contained manufacture of oral dosage forms incorporating high-potency active pharmaceutical ingredients (HPAPIs). The announcement of the first production output comes less than a year after the contract manufacturing organisation (CMO) unveiled plans to build the facility.
US chemical company Vertellus Specialties has upgraded its facility in Antwerp, Belgium, to manufacture niacin (nicotinic acid) for pharmaceutical use. The plant has been supplying the ingredient for food and agricultural applications for 30 years but now meets the more stringent regulatory requirements for pharma production. “Niacin increasingly is used as a critical ingredient in drugs that help improve cardiovascular health by increasing good cholesterol levels,” commented Bentley Park, who is president of Vertellus’ agriculture & nutrition specialities unit.
Specialist logistics company Expeditors has opened a new facility in Ashbourne, Ireland, to meet rising demand for outsourced cold storage capacity from the pharmaceutical industry, according to a report in the Meath Chronicle. The unit has cost around €100,000 to set up and will provide regulated, temperature-controlled warehousing for medicines and medical devices.
Phil Taylor
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