Serum Institute of India (SII) will boost its European presence through a vaccine manufacturing tie-up between its Serum Life Sciences subsidiary and Mumbai-based Wockhardt, the latter announced Sunday.
Wockhardt’s U.K. subsidiary will set up a new fill-finish facility in North Wales capable of producing 150 million doses of “multiple” SII vaccines, the press release said. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Pune-based SII established Serum Life Sciences in the U.K. in October…
Oxford Biomedica and Homology Medicines last week launched a U.S.-based adeno-associated virus (AAV) CDMO offering clients “innovative manufacturing expertise” in AAV and lentiviral-based cell and gene therapies, according to a joint press release. Under the deal, Oxford Biomedica will pay Massachusetts-based Homology $130 million upfront and pump $50 million more into the joint entity—dubbed Oxford Biomedica Solutions—in exchange for an 80% stake.
In other CDMO news, Fujifilm Diosynth…
Germany’s IDT Biologika will invest $113 million to increase its vaccines and biopharmaceuticals manufacturing capacity, the CDMO announced last week.
The expansion is part of a multiyear program that will increase space for drug substance manufacturing, aseptic liquid filling, packaging capabilities and automated visual inspection, the press release said.
IDT provides CDMO services for a handful of Covid-19 vaccine developers and is developing its own vaccines against diseases…
The wave of CDMO capacity expansions continued into the new year with contract manufacturer ZhenGe Biotech raising $100 million in series C funding to build “multiple” 15,000-liter production lines, according to its press release last week.
Founded in 2017, the Shanghai-based company—which also has facilities in Maryland—claims expertise in monoclonal and bispecific antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, fusion proteins and vaccines. The new round brings its total financing to $225…
Merck KGaA will bolster its mRNA contract manufacturing business with the $780 million acquisition of Exelead, an Indiana-based CDMO, the multinational announced last week.
Exelead’s specialties include lipid nanoparticle-based drug delivery technology used in mRNA-based therapeutics, according to a Merck press release.
Novo Nordisk will pour nearly $2.6 billion into three new manufacturing facilities and one existing plant at its production site in Denmark, the company announced Monday. The “vast majority” of the investment will go toward increasing production of active pharmaceutical ingredients, the press release said.
Meanwhile, Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies will allocate $300 million—of a previously announced $850 million investment to boost biologics capacity—to build a new production…
India’s Hilleman Laboratories is setting up in Singapore, a company press release said Monday. The Merck and Wellcome joint venture is investing $58 million over the next five years to develop a 30,000-square-foot facility focused on R&D and clinical trials “up to Phase II stage.” Expected to be fully operational by early 2023, the site will develop “affordable, high-value vaccines and biologics for Singapore as well as low- and middle-income countries.”
Meanwhile, Fujifilm…
Several manufacturers expanded their operations in the United States, per announcements and media reports last week.
First, U.S. multinational BD plans to boost its San Diego presence with a new 220,000-square-foot biosciences R&D facility, expected to open by end-2023, Fierce Biotech reported. Also, Chinese cancer specialist BeiGene said it is expanding its New Jersey footprint with a 400,000-square-foot, “state-of-the-art” manufacturing campus and clinical R&D facility,…
Baxter International’s CDMO unit plans a $100 million expansion to its sterile fill-finish manufacturing facility in western Germany, the company announced last week. The investment adds to a multibillion-dollar investment spree among manufacturers worldwide.
In related news, Samsung Biologics has bought land in Incheon, South Korea, where it plans a $259 million genetic medicines facility, the Korea Herald reported in early November.
Chinese CDMO WuXi Biologics launched its new 12,000-square-meter facility in its eponymous hometown last week. The plant will produce monoclonal antibodies, bispecifics and fusion proteins, among other drug products, with up to 60 million vials per year in capacity, the press release said.
The investment delivers an eighth global facility to the company.