Global Healthcare Opportunities (GHO), a European specialist investor in healthcare, and Partners Group, a global private markets firm, have both invested in Sterling Pharma Solutions, a CDMO owned by GHO. The exact amounts have not been disclosed.

Evonik has begun construction of a new production plant for alkoxides on Jurong Island in Singapore. Described as a “mid double-digit million-euro investment” this will complement sites in Germany, Argentina and the US, supplying the growing Asia-Pacific market when it comes onstream at the end of 2024. The aim is to achieve zero Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions.

CordenPharma is entering synthetic oligonucleotide manufacturing via an investment at its CordenPharma Colorado site. This will draw on its solid-phase peptide manufacturing experience and downstream processing capabilities to offer a fully integrated drug substance and drug product offer.

Siegfried has broke ground for its new global R&D centre for drug substances at its site in Evionnaz, Switzerland. The company is investing up to €23 million at the facility, which will begin operations in 2024 and host about 100 scientists, working alongside another R&D centre at the main site in Zofingen. The centre will host advanced chemical and analytical facilities and laboratories, offering chemical process R&D and analytical development services for the entire drug substances network, Siegfried said.

Azelis has announced the opening of new laboratories within the space of a month. Each covers different applications and is located on different continent.

A new pharmaceuticals and healthcare application laboratory in Courbevoie, France, complements existing ones in the UK and Turkey, the company said. It is equipped to address challenges in areas such as API solubilisation and bioavailability, compliance, counterfeiting and misuse, and the optimisation of formulations and production processes.

Seqens is to make an investment of nearly RMB 300 million (€40 million) in three major new production capacity projects for the healthcare and cosmetics markets at Taixing and Wuxi, China. CEO Pierre Luzeau (pictured) announced this during a meeting President Macron had with between President Xi Jinping and Macron in Beijing on 6 April.

CDMO supply chains “are potentially the biggest single risk to product resilience, yet they remain an area often overlooked by drug sponsors in partnering criteria”, said Bikash Chatterjee, CEO of Pharmatech Associates during a panel entitled ‘Redesigning the Supply Chain – The Road to Increased Resilience’. This was held as part of the online element of CPHI North America.