Bachem, the world market leader in peptides, has automated and digitalised one of its core business processes, solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS). The company describes this as the start of its journey to Industry 4.0. The process is described in detail on the company website (www.bachem.com/news/bachem-journey-to-industry-4-0/).
W. R. Grace & Co. has announced plans to expand its CDMO facility in South Haven, Michigan, by January 2024. It will add an 18 m3 multi-purpose glass-lined and stainless steel reactor train to two existing trains of the same size, as well as a Hastelloy centrifuge to facilitate product isolation.
Wacker Chemie has announced plans to invest “a double-digit million euro amount” on it the new Biotechnology Centre at its corporate research facility in Munich, which is due to be operational in 2024. CEO Christian Hartel said that building it “will allow us to concentrate and intensify our research activities in the area of biotechnology. The additional capacity we will create here will accelerate the growth of our life-sciences division.”
In the space of just over two weeks, Azelis, the world’s third largest chemical distributor, has made five acquisitions in four different regional markets. This followed up on two made the previous month as the company spreads its wings across the globe. All of the deals are expected to close in Q3.
Under a new agreement, Spectrum Chemicals is to distribute Angus Chemical’s TRIS Amino AC USP/EP (pictured) and BIS-TRIS biologics-grade buffers to the biopharmaceutical and life sciences industries in the US and Canada. The company said that these complement its own bioprocessing portfolio such as the BioCertified product line.
Angus is the world’s largest and only fully integrated manufacturer of TRIS buffers. These are used as buffering agents in cell culture and bioprocessing applications, and in the purification of biological molecules in downstream processing.
SK Pharmteco has announced a two-phase, $35 million investment to boost both capacity and capabilities at its SK Biotek subsidiary’s manufacturing plant at Swords, Dublin. This is due online in 2024, the campus’s 60th anniversary as a small molecule API manufacture, and will lead to a 50% total increase in capacity.
Piramal Pharma Solutions (PPS) has announced the implementation of “various tools to unlock API manufacturing capacity and support client needs in drug development and on-patent projects” at its 40-hectare site at Digwal in the Indian state of Telangana. This came shortly after its new API plant at Aurora, Ontario, came online.
