Lonza has opened the first of two manufacturing suites at its main site in Visp, Switzerland, for the manufacture of antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) linkers or payloads. This came shortly after an unrelated deal to manufacture antibodies to treat COVID-19 for AstraZeneca and the arrival of a new CEO with a Big Pharma background.
IMCD has agreed to acquire the pharmaceutical business of Peak International Products, a Netherlands-based distributor of APIs in the Benelux, Vietnam, Germany and Israel. The business, which had sales of about €5.8 million in 2019, will be integrated into IMCD’s Pharmaceuticals business group.
Shortly before this, IMCD, the world’s fourth largest chemical distributor, completed the much larger acquisition of a 70% majority stake in Signet Excipients, a major Indian distributor of excipients, as part of its platform for further growth in India and the Asia-Pacific.
Siegfried has agreed to buy two drug product sites near Barcelona, Spain, from Novartis, in a deal expected to close by the end of 2020. Terms were not disclosed but Siegfried said that its sales should surpass CHF 1 billion in 2021, with the drug product operations “achieving the targeted critical size”.
Pharmaceutical CDMO Sterling Pharma Solutions which is based near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, and was formerly owned by Rhodia and Shasun, has acquired Alcami’s facility at Germantown, Wisconsin (pictured). Terms were not disclosed.
Sterling said that this will boost its API development and manufacturing capacity, particularly for complex and hazardous requirements, and including high potency. Germantown has cGMP development, scale-up and manufacturing facilities with specialist expertise in handling technologies including plant-scale hydrogenation and cryogenic reactions.
Merck KGaA is to spend €59 million to expand HPAPI and ADC manufacturing capabilities and capacity at its facility near Madison, Wisconsin. Completion is expected by mid-2022 and should add approximately 50 full-time jobs from 2021.
The investment will allow large-scale manufacturing of highly potent oncology compounds, the company said. The 6,500 m2 building will be one of the largest dedicated HPAPI facilities specifically designed to handle single-digit nanogram OEL materials.
President Emmanuel Macron (above) and Bruno Lemaire, Minister of the Economy, Finance & Recovery, were both present on 28 August, when pharmaceutical CDMO Seqens unveiled a new HPAPI unit at its site in Villeneuve-La-Garenne, France. The total investment in the UPP30 project, as it is called, was about €30 million.
Swiss-based CDMO Carbogen Amcis has announced two major expansion projects over the next four years at a cost of over €90 million. This follows six years of constant growth for the company, a subsidiary of the Dishman Group, and aims to address current market demand.
