Cambrex’s Snapdragon Chemistry subsidiary has developed a new liquid-phase peptide synthesis (LPPS) technology that uses traditional API batch reactors and continuous flow, obviating the dependency on specialised, solid-phase reactors. It also “materially reduces solvent demand and the need for excess reagents compared to standard solid-state peptide synthesis (SPPS) processes”.

Cambrex has completed a $38 million expansion at its small molecule API facility in High Point, North Carolina. This doubles capacity, with new analytical and chemical development laboratories, two new clinical manufacturing suites and a small-scale commercial manufacturing operation with three work centres and 2,000 litre reactors. Work originally began in 2021. This has created about 70 jobs.

CDMO Cambrex has agreed to buy Snapdragon Chemistry, a US-based provider of chemical process development services to the biopharma sector. Terms were not disclosed. This came two months after regulatory approval was denied to Asymchem Laboratories’ acquisition of Snapdragon.

The proposed acquisition of US-based Snapdragon Chemistry by the Chinese CDMO Asymchem Laboratories has been abandoned. The two firms were unable to agree mitigation terms that would satisfy the US Treasury’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).