Members of the Sustainable Markets Initiative Health Systems Task Force have published an open letter to suppliers in the supply chain, asking them to commit to joining the initiative and working towards climate and sustainability targets. The CEOs of AstraZeneca, GSK, Merck& Co., Novo Nordisk, Sanofi and Samsung Biologics, and the chairman of Roche all signed it.
Thermo Fisher Scientific has settled a lawsuit brought by the estate of Henrietta Lacks, whose cells have been used extensively in biomedical research since her death in 1951 at the age of 31. Terms were not disclosed but attorneys on both sides said that they were satisfied.
CDMOs Axplora and Flamma have both made announcements about investments in flow chemistry, with the former completing the installation of a new cGMP pilot unit at Leverkusen, Germany, and the latter investing about $2 million in flow, starting with the installation of a new suite of equipment from Microinnova at Chignolo D’Isola, Italy.
DC Fine Chemicals has laid the first stone at its new €7 million headquarters in Terrassa, Spain. This comprises a 3,050 m2 building on a 7,300 m2 site, which will allow for total storage without the need for external warehouses and capacity of up to 1,900 pallets on seven levels, compared to the 900 in the former warehouse.
Germany-based Evonik and Heraeus Precious Metals have announced that they are collaborating to expand their range of services for HPAPIs. They intend to build a fully integrated offering from the pre-clinical stage to commercial manufacturing, with streamlined transfer between small- and large-scale production between their respective sites.
Heraeus’s Pharmaceutical Ingredients business offers customised services for both earlier and later clinical phases and smaller to mid-volume HPAPI commercial products. It claims to be the world’s leading supplier of platinum-based HPAPIs.
Japan’s DIC Corporation has acquired PCAS Canada from PCAS, a legacy subsidiary of Seqens, for an enterprise value of €82 million, and has renamed it Innovation DIC Chimitroniques. This follows agreement by both boards and the workers’ council.
PCAS Canada has a facility near Montreal producing photoresists for semiconductor photolithography, an area in which DIC expects substantial growth. DIC will combine these with its own syntheis technologies and will continue to invest in the site.
Italian CDMO Olon has announced the start of a construction on a €22 million facility for the production of ultra-potent compounds. These are aimed for use mainly as payloads and payload-linkers for antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) at its site at Rodano, near Milan. The facility will reach containment OEB Level 6, with a target occupational exposure level (OEL) of 10 ng/m3.
