Swiss CDMO Siegfried has inaugurated its new global R&D centre for drug substances at its site in Evionnaz. The 4,500 m2 centre houses chemical and analytical facilities, laboratories and advanced technologies including flow chemistry, distillation and process analytics, plus office space. There are workspaces for over 100 and 40 new jobs have been created.
Peptides CDMO AmbioPharm, has broken ground on a 650 m2, $28 million expansion project at its Shanghai manufacturing site. This is due to be complete in 2H 2025 and will produce over 8 tonnes/year of crude peptide.
Building 2, as it is called will feature advanced fragment-based peptide synthesis with multiple 1,000-3,000L solid- and liquid-phase lines. The output will be further processed using existing downstream purification and isolation capabilities at the company’s sites in North Augusta, South Carolina, and Shanghai itself.
Three CDMOs have separately announced expansions in their antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) manufacturing capabilities and capacity on opposite sides of the Atlantic. This has come on the back of growing interest in this modality in the treatment of cancer, which has been forecast to grow at 15%/year to 2028.
Biosynth, which supplies critical raw materials and services for diagnostics, vaccines and pharmaceuticals, has officially opened its Biosynth Biological Technology site at Lifebay, a technology park in Suzhou, China. Facilities include a bio-laboratory, which, the company said, “significantly enhances capabilities for internal project development initiatives and material supply into the domestic life science market”.
At its latest Capital Markets Day, Merck KGaA said that it is “in a strong strategic position” to profit from medium-term growth opportunities in all three of its business sectors after a transitional year in 2023. “We committed to return to growth in 2024 and this is materialising already,” said Belén Garijo, CEO and chair (pictured).
At CPHI in Milan in October, eight Indian CDMOs announced that they have formed a trade group to raise the profile of India’s drug services sector and make it a destination of choice. “We are trying to advocate the idea that, like IT services, pharma services could be a big industry in India,” said Aragen CEO Manni Kantipudi (pictured), who leads the group.
CatSci has opened a second oligonucleotides laboratory, which it will use “to introduce novel workflows for the rapid production of vast numbers of oligos at a scale optimised for rapid screening”. The company is also transforming its largest laboratory space into a centre of excellence for oligonucleotide development by remodelling it to create efficient working spaces for existing and new capabilities.
