Cambrex, Recipharm, NextPharma Expand; SPI Pharma Names New CEO
The latest from CDMOs, CMOs, and suppliers featuring Cambrex, Recipharm, NextPharma, SPI Pharma, Sharp Services, and Evotec.
Chemicals/Chemical API Manufacturing
Cambrex Completes Expansion of Solid-Form Screening Facility
Cambrex has completed an expansion of its solid-form screening and crystallization process-development facility in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The expansion doubles the facility’s total footprint to 15,000 square feet, refurbishes existing laboratory space, and adds an additional 3,500 square feet of laboratory space.
The expansion has added an additional 13 fume cupboards to the laboratory, including three that are “walk-in,” which will allow the Edinburgh team to increase capacity and provide larger process crystallization development up to the 20-liter scale. The site currently has 50 employees, and the expansion will add additional laboratory space to enable the recruitment of up to 40 more scientists, with the potential for further growth.
Cambrex’s Edinburgh site provides solid-form development services for drug substances and drug products, including solid-state investigations, such as salt, co-crystal, and polymorph screening, in addition to crystallization process development and GMP analytical services.
Source: Cambrex
Formulation Development/Drug-Product Manufacturing
NextPharma Invests $17 M To Expand Solid-Dosage Capacity
NextPharma, a London-headquartered CDMO, has completed an EUR 15 million ($17 million) investment to expand its existing capacity for manufacturing and packaging of oral solid dosage forms at its site in Goettingen, Germany.
The project involved construction of a new 1,000-square-meter building on two levels, with additional production facilities on the ground floor for mixing, compression, film coating, and granulation. The expansion increased capacity at the site by 25%, equivalent to an increase in manufacturing and packaging capacity of approximately one billion tablets.
A packaging line for blister packs has been installed on the upper floor of the building, and another bottle packaging line will be added in the second quarter of 2021. The building and its facilities became operational in the third quarter of 2020.
Source: NextPharma
Recipharm Invests $3 M To Expand Sterile Mfg Facility
Recipharm, a CDMO of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and drug products, has invested EUR 2.6 million ($3 million) for additional manufacturing capacity at its facility in Kaysersberg, France.
The Kaysersberg facility is one of the company’s sterile manufacturing facilities. It specializes in producing sterile liquids, including eye-care and ear drops.
Source: Recipharm
SPI Pharma Names Former BASF Executive CEO
SPI Pharma, a provider of excipients and other pharma ingredients and services, has named Scott Thomson, a former executive with BASF, as CEO of SPI Pharma.
Thomson joins SPI Pharma after 29 years with BASF, where he held various leadership roles in both North America and Germany, including Senior Vice President of BASF’s Global Pharmaceutical Solutions Business. His most recent position was Senior Vice President, Care Chemicals Division, North America.
Source: SPI Pharma
Packaging
Sharp Invests $10 M in Injectables Packaging Equipment
Sharp Services, part of UDG Healthcare and a provider of contract packaging and clinical supply services, has invested $10 million in equipment for packaging injectable drugs.
The investment includes the installation and validation of two Dividella NeoTOPx packaging systems, one for Sharp’s Allentown, Pennsylvania facility in the US and the other for its Hamont-Achel site in Belgium. Dividella’s NeoTOPx system is an automated top-loading cartoner with the flexibility to pack vials, syringes, pens/autoinjectors, and multi-component kits. The company is also installing a NJM Courser 230 Vial and Syringe Labeler at its Allentown site.
In recent years, Sharp has invested $21 million to expand capacity and services at its Biotechnology Center of Excellence in Allentown and $11 million for enhancing syringe assembly and cold-chain capabilities in the US, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
Source: Sharp Services
General
Evotec Gains Funding of $294 M by Investment Firms
Evotec, a Hamburg, Germany-based drug-discovery and development company, reports two investment firms, Mubadala Investment Company, an Abu Dhabi-based sovereign investor, and Novo Holdings, a Hellerup, Denmark-based life science investor, will invest a total of EUR 250 million ($295 million) to acquire outstanding shares of Evotec.
In this private placement, Mubadala will invest EUR 200 million ($235 million) to acquire 5.6 % of Evotec. Evotec’s existing shareholder, Novo Holdings, will invest EUR 50 million ($59 million) to increase its ownership in the company to approximately 11.0%.
Source: Evotec and Mubadala Investment Company
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