Manufacturing news in brief
pharmafile | December 1, 2009 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Aurobindo, Servier
Our periodic round-up of developments in the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector reveals a crop of facility news, with capital investments at Servier, Aurobindo, PX’Therapeutics and QM Specials, a reprieve for Dey and bad news for employees at a former Schering-Plough warehousing unit.
Sanofi-Aventis has agreed to participate in a Russian pilot project designed to attract and retain pharmaceutical manufacturing in the country and expand the overall pharmaceutical market. The French drugmaker said it would contribute to the Pharmpolis Project via its recently-opened insulin factory in Russia. Sanofi-Aventis signed the memorandum of understanding with Prominvest, a subsidiary of the state-owned corporation Rostekhnologii during the Franco-Russian Intergovernmental Seminar held in France on November 27.
Up to 50 jobs could be created at a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Lismore, Ireland, operated by QM Specials, a subsidiary of UK-based Quantum Specials. The firm has been granted a license from the Irish Medicines Board to produce a range of ‘special’ medicines. These include bespoke medicines which are tailor made to meet the requirements of patients, as well as drugs which have a product license in the UK but not in Ireland.
French contract manufacturer PX’Therapeutics SA says it will set up of an additional biomanufacturing unit dedicated to the production of therapeutic proteins and monoclonal antibodies in mammalian cells at its site in Grenoble. The plant is due to be operational from April 2010 and will allow cell banking as well as preclinical and clinical manufacturing of biotherapeutics, operating at the 100-200-litre scale, and the company also plans to add an additional 100L bioreactor.
Dey LP has decided to keep a plant in California, USA, open and retain a workforce of 300-400 at the unit. The facility was put forward for closure last year after Mylan took over Dey, which specialises in generic versions of respiratory drugs. At its height Dey’s Napa operations employed around 500 people.
Merck & Co has decided to close down a warehousing facility in New Jersey, USA, with the loss of up to 80 jobs. The facility in Upper Macungie, Hunterdon County was formerly owned by Schering-Plough, which was acquired by Merck earlier this month. The site was primarily used to package NuvaRing, a contraceptive device. The current workload will transfer to a Merck facility in Kenilworth.
France’s Servier has officially opened a 47 million euro production facility in County Wicklow, Ireland, that will create 100 jobs, according to the Irish Development Agency. The new 4,500 sq. m. facility marks the final stage in a 124 million euro investment process at the site and has seen its size double in the last three years.
Indian active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) producer Aurobindo has opened a new formulations facility in Hyderabad which will help it boost revenues to $2 billion by 2013, according to a PharmaAsiaNews report. A wide-ranging agreement with Pfizer to provide generic products in emerging and development markets will be another major growth driver.
Related Content
BioMed X and Servier launch Europe’s first XSeed Labs to advance AI-powered antibody design
BioMed X and Servier have announced the launch of Europe’s first XSeed Labs research project, …
Servier and Aitia enter into R&D collaboration for pancreatic cancer using Digital Twins
French pharmaceutical company Servier and US-based Causal AI and Digital Twins company Aitia have announced …
Servier and MiNA partner to develop neurological disorder treatments
Independent pharmaceutical group Servier and RNA activation-focused MiNA Therapeutics have entered a research partnership to …
