Ineos has given £100 million, one of the largest ever donations given to a UK university, to launch a new research institute to combat the growing global issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) at Oxford University. It will be based at two sites linking the Department of Chemistry and the new Life & Mind Building, which is currently being built.
Big Pharma giant Sanofi has revealed that the name of its new subsidiary in third party API manufacture, as originally announced in February 2020, will be EuroAPI. It has also recruited Karl Rotthier from Centrient Pharmaceuticals, formerly DSM Sinochem, to be CEO. “
Addressing recent increasing medicine shortages that critically impact patient care, EuroAPI will ensure additional API supply capacities for Europe and beyond, and help balancing the industry’s heavy reliance on API sourced from other regions,” Sanofi stated.
Pharmaceutical CDMO Piramal Pharma Solutions (PPS) is to invest about $32 million to expand its former Ash Stevens API manufacturing site at Riverview, Michigan. This will add 2,300 m2 of space, including 780 m2 of production space.
Lonza has recently announced three specific investments in the pharma sector in recent weeks. It will build two new customer-dedicated conjugation suites for antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) at Visp, Switzerland, while adding particle engineering and drug product development at two sites in the US.
Pharmaceutical CDMO Sterling Pharma Solutions has announced a new strategic partnership with ADC Biotechnology, a specialist in antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). Both companies are UK-based.
Sterling will make an unspecified but significant investment in ADC Bio with a view to acquiring it in Q1 2021, subject to due diligence. The businesses will then work together to develop an integrated service offering for existing and potential customers, which combines ADC Bio’s expertise with Sterling’s in high potency small molecules.
CordenPharma has announced the approval of a long-term expansion initiative “to further increase our flexibility, efficiency and ultimately, cost-effective production” at its solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) in Boulder, Colorado. This follows the installation of an extra-large 3,000L SPPS vessel at the site earlier this year in response to growing demand for peptide APIs.
Kaneka Eurogentec, an affiliate of Japan’s Kaneka based at Liège, Belgium, has signed an agreement to make the INO-4800 DNA vaccine candidate for COVID-19 for Inovio Pharmaceuticals, a US biotech, at commercial scale in its GMP facility. Financial terms were not disclosed.
INO-4800 uses plasmid DNA as a drug substance and has just received US FDA clearance to move to the second part of its Phase II-III clinical trials. These trials have financial support from the US Department of Defense.
