Pharma manufacturing news in brief
pharmafile | March 5, 2012 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |Â Â APP Pharma, Almac, Bicon Pharma, Hikal, Penn Pharma, United DrugÂ
Our round-up of news in the pharma manufacturing sector includes updates from APP Pharma, Bicon Pharma, Penn Pharma, Almac, Hikal and United Drug.
APP Pharmaceuticals has been sent a warning letter by the FDA after insect fragments were found in finished products and production areas at its plant in Grand Island, New York, US. The letter says APP failed to correct the contamination problems identified during an inspection in June and July 2011, and also pulls up the company for manufacturing unapproved new drugs. The firm’s parent company Fresenius Kabi said it was ‘making progress’ in remedying the issues.
Private equity firm PAG Asia has invested $250 million in Chinese drugmaker Bicon Pharmaceutical Holdings, with the money in part earmarked for the construction of an R&D and manufacturing facility in Xinyi, Jiangsu Province, as well as acquisitions. Bicon manufactures and distributes traditional Chinese and modern chemical medicines, including branded, generic, and over-the-counter products. The Jiangsu site will cover a planned area of more than 106 hectares, with production units, a packaging and printing plant, R&D labs, offices, logistics and facilities centres and a technical institute.
Penn Pharma of the UK has announced a £14 million ($22m) investment in high-containment facilities at its manufacturing plant in South Wales, adding 15,000 sq. ft. of development and commercial manufacturing space for tablets and capsules. “This investment is the catalyst required to enable us to build on the services that we are currently offering our clients and ensure that we are able to react to the evolving market place,” said Penn chief executive Richard Yarwood.
Outsourcing specialist Almac has boosted the capacity of its clinical supply plant in Souderton, Philadelphia, US, with the addition of a Bosch GKF 702 capsule filler with integrated KKE 1700 checkweigher system, enabling it to encapsulate more than 40,000 dosage units an hour, some ten times its earlier capacity. The investment comes on the back of ‘a surge in clinical outsourcing’ demand. The Souderton plant was opened just one year ago.
India’s Hikal has said it plans to start operations at its recently-constructed active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) manufacturing facility in Bangalore in June, supplying ingredients to customers in markets including the US, Europe, South East Asia, Latin America, Canada and Japan, according to the Business Standard newspaper. The new multipurpose API facility at Jigani has a total reactor volume of approximately 300 cubic metres. The plant successfully passed a third inspection by the FDA in January.
Ireland’s United Drug has been boosted by a new packaging contract from an existing customer that it says will be worth up to €30 million over the next four years. The company said at its annual general meeting that it posted operating profit of €77 million on 2011 revenues of €1.75 billion, with its packaging unit reporting sales of €138 million, up 14% year-on-year.
Phil Taylor
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