With biopharmaceuticals dominating the drug development landscape, Thermo Fisher Scientific says it needs more capacity throughout its manufacturing network. To that end, its CDMO operations will invest $150 million in three sites.
The company says the investments will provide additional capacity for sterile liquid and lyophilized product development and commercial manufacturing at sites in Greenville, North Carolina, as well as Monza and Ferentino, Italy. Each site will get aseptic filling lines and isolator technology. Construction is slated to be complete within 24 months.
“These investments will help expand our global sterile manufacturing network and meet the increasing demand from customers that rely on our biologics development and manufacturing expertise,” Michel Lagarde, president of Thermo Fisher pharma services, said in an statement this week.
The Waltham, Massachusetts-based pharma services company jumped into the contract manufacturing business big-time two years ago with its $7.2 billion deal to buy Patheon, one of the largest contract manufacturers in the world.
In fact, 2017 turned into a watershed year for the CDMO industry. Lonza paid $5.5 billion for Capsugel to get a solid place in that niche of the business, then followed that up with a small deal for Netherlands-based PharmaCell, a gene and cell contract manufacturer in Europe.
But the consolidation didn’t stop there. Weeks after those two deals were done, Catalent, another sizable operator, agreed to pay $950 million to buy Cook Pharmica to get its extensive biologics manufacturing operation in Bloomington, Indiana.
By Eric Palmer
Source: Fierce Pharma
CureVac and the University of Texas’s MD Anderson Cancer Center have announced a co-development and licensing agreement to develop novel messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based cancer vaccines. The strategic collaboration will focus on the development of differentiated cancer vaccine candidates in selected haematological and solid tumour indications with high unmet medical needs.
FUJIFILM Corporation is planning to invest $1.2 billion to expand the planned FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, US. This news follows the organisation’s announcement of a $2 billion investment in the facility in March 2021. This additional financial boost totals the investment to over $3.2 billion, FUJIFILM confirmed.
Sanofi’s global restructuring and downsizing is now fully underway, with layoffs stretching to the company’s Belgian offices. Belgian newspaper De Tijd reports that 67 employees have been laid off at a site in Ghent and 32 jobs are on the chopping block at Sanofi’s Belgium HQ in Diegem.
