China-based pharmaceutical CDMO WuXi STA has completed the acquisition of a drug product manufacturing facility in Couvet, Switzerland, from Bristol-Myers Squibb, as announced earlier in the year. The site is WuXi STA’s first in Europe. It makes tablets and capsules.

Through this transaction, WuXi STA has increased its global presence to eight R&D and manufacturing sites across Asia, North America and Europe, including a pharmaceutical clinical and commercial manufacturing complex on a 78-hectare campus at Middletown, Delaware, that was announced in early July.

Two pharmaceutical CDMOs, AMRI in the US and UK-based Arcinova, have almost simultaneously announced full corporate rebranding exercises. The former has become Curia, which is derived from a Latin word for ‘purposeful assembly’, as of 12 July, while the latter is taking the name Quotient Sciences – Alnwick.

Pharmaceutical CDMO Evotec has acquired GlaxoSmithKline’s site at Verona, Italy, where its Aptuit subsidiary is already active, employing 750. Terms were not disclosed. Following a meeting with site workers, the company has also agreed to rename the site Campus Levi-Montalcini, in honour of the Italian Nobel laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini.

During its 2020 results presentation, Italian API producer Olon announced the completion of a large-scale, multi-purpose, high-containment HPAPI production line at its Rodano site near Milan. This is already available to customers, the firm added.

Chinese CDMO WuXi STA is to build a new pharmaceutical clinical and commercial manufacturing complex on a 78-hectare campus in Middletown, Delaware. This has been supported by the Delaware Prosperity Partnership, other state departments and local government bodies, and received grants from the Delaware Strategic Fund.

Novasep has announced a €6.1 million investment to modernise API manufacturing at its site in Mourenx, south-west France. This followed on shortly after a €4 million investment had been announced at its main HPAPIs site at Le Mans.

Via the former investment, Novasep will install new equipment and revamp clean rooms for API isolation at Mourenx, creating seven new jobs. The company said that this will “enhance Novasep’s flexibility and develop a high-performance capacity for the custom manufacturing of innovative therapeutic molecules”.

AlzChem, the only supplier of speciality nitriles outside China, has completed a €12 million expansion that took 15 months and will increase capacity by 50%. This is particularly targeted at the pharmaceutical and agrochemical markets and is expected to lead to additional sales of €10-20 million/year, depending on the product mix.