CDMO Sterling Pharma Solutions has completed the initial phase of investment in its centre of excellence for research into the commercial applications of continuous flow chemistry at Dudley, UK. This follows the appointment in July of Professor Ian Baxendale of Durham University to head a dedicated team in this field.

Quotient Sciences is to invest £6.3 million to expand drug substance manufacturing at the site in Alnwick, UK, which it acquired along with Arcinova in February. This will also create 80 new jobs over the next three years and boost its capacity to develop complex medicines tenfold.

Eurazeo has announced that it has entered into exclusive discussions to sell its stake in French-based CDMO Seqens to funds advised by SK Capital Partners and its existing French shareholders, Mérieux Equity Partners.

Seqens commented that SK Capital’s involvement could enhance its position in the production of APIs, pharmaceutical intermediates and speciality ingredients. SK has already owned API manufacturer Wavelength Pharmaceuticals since 2017.

Curia has announced plans to invest about $35 million in order to expand commercial-scale API manufacturing capacity at its largest site in Rensselaer, New York, over the course of 18 months. This is the third significant announcement in the month since the former AMRI renamed itself.

Bachem, the world’s largest peptides manufacturer, has announced some results of two studies it carried out with Novo Nordisk, seeking to make solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) greener.

SPPS requires large volumes of solvents and the current gold standards, because of their excellent solubilisation and stability properties for reagents and resin swelling capabilities, are N-dimethylformamide (DMF), dichloromethane and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone. All now face restrictions under REACH because of their hazardous nature.

The WeylChem Group has announced that it is building the largest potassium-fluoride (KF)-based plant for halogen exchange (Halex) reactions in the Western world, at its Allessa site in Fechenheim Industrial Park in Frankfurt. This is the largest investment in Allessa since it was incorporated into WeylChem eight years ago. The project will take two years to complete.

Heraeus Pharmaceutical Ingredients (HPI) has announced that its new production line for platinum-based pharmaceutical ingredients at its headquarters in Hanau, Germany, is now running at full speed and customers have already received the first deliveries of APIs. The company launched the project in late 2018 in response to growing demand for oncology drugs and imminent shortages. HPI, a business line of Heraeus Precious Metals, is world’s largest supplier of platinum-based HPAPIs, which are used in numerous therapies, notably lung, colorectal, ovarian and testicular cancer.