Supplier News: Catalent, Meridian, Curia, NovaCina, & More
The latest from CDMOs, CMOs, and suppliers featuring Meridian Medical Technologies, Catalent, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Curia, Corning, Solvay, Ginkgo Bioworks, Phlow, Forecyte Bio, NovaCina, Meissner, and Fujifilm Irvine Scientific.
Chemicals/Chemical API Manufacturing
* Curia Partners with Corning To Advance Flow Chemistry Platform
* Solvay Partners with Ginkgo Bioworks for Sustainable Chemicals
* Phlow Raises $36 M for its CDMO Business
Biologics Manufacturing
* Meissner Investing $250 M for New Mfg Facility for Filters, Other Bioprocessing Components
* Forecyte Bio Opens New Cell- & Gene-Therapy Mfg Facility in China
* Fujifilm Irvine Adds Two New Media Types to its Portfolio
Formulation Development/Drug Product Manufacturing
* Meridian Medical Technologies Investing $100 M in Facility Expansion
* Investment firm Bridgewest Group Acquires former Pfizer Sterile Injectables Mfg Facility; Launches New CDMO Business
* Thermo Fisher Adds Early-Stage Development of Oral Solid Dosage Forms at Facility in France
Packaging
* Catalent Begins $20-M Expansion of Clinical Supply Facility
Chemicals/Chemical API Manufacturing
Curia Partners with Corning To Advance Flow Chemistry Platform
Curia, a CDMO of drug substances and drug products, and Corning, a manufacturer of specialty glass, ceramics, and related materials and technologies, have entered an agreement to expand and accelerate continuous-flow development and manufacturing programs at Curia.
Curia’s collaboration with Corning includes the installation of Corning’s G1 production system, designed for the continuous industrial production of active pharmaceutical ingredients. The G1 production reactor includes an updated set of dosing lines and controls that enable continuous operations and compliance to cGMP standards.
Source: Curia
Solvay Partners with Ginkgo Bioworks for Sustainable Chemicals
Solvay, a materials and chemicals company, and Ginkgo Bioworks, a Boston-based biotechnology company specializing in cell engineering for industrial applications, have formed an agreement for sustainable chemicals. The alliance will start by focusing on new sustainable biopolymers.
As part of this partnership, Solvay will also acquire a Ginkgo laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. With this strategic collaboration and expansion, Solvay will integrate bioinformatics / data science, strain engineering, biocatalysis, and fermentation processes in the development of sustainable chemicals.
Source: Solvay
Phlow Raises $36 M for its CDMO Business
Phlow, a Richmond, Virginia-based CDMO of starting materials, active pharmaceutical ingredients, and finished pharmaceuticals, has raised $36 million, which will be used to expand the company’s commercial offerings, including its CDMO program, called cdmoX.
Source: Phlow
Biologics Manufacturing
Meissner Investing $250 M for New Mfg Facility for Filters, Other Bioprocessing Components
Meissner, a Camarillo, California-headquartered manufacturer of filters, integrity test instruments, and single-use biocontainers and fluid-path assemblies for bioprocessing, announced that it will invest nearly $250 million in a new facility in Athens-Clarke County, Georgia.
When the currently planned phases are complete, the new campus will more than double the company’s manufacturing footprint in the US as the company expands operations. Meissner expects the new site to consist of multiple structures, which will include cleanroom facilities, laboratories, research and development and office spaces.
Operations are expected to begin in early 2026, and the project will create more than 1,700 jobs over the next eight years.
Source: Georgia Department of Economic Development
Forecyte Bio Opens New Cell- & Gene-Therapy Mfg Facility in China
Forecyte Bio, a Frederick, Maryland-based CDMO of cell and gene therapies, has opened a new cell- and gene-therapy GMP facility in Shanghai, China. The new facility totals 140,000 square feet, with a total investment of nearly $40 million. The facility offers multiple GMP production lines for plasmids, viral vectors, and cell therapies.
Earlier this year (January 2023), the company opened a 17,000-square-foot cGMP production facility in Frederick, Maryland, consisting of individual cleanroom suites for plasmid DNA, viral vectors, and cell therapies as well as laboratory space for process development and quality control testing.
Source: Forecyte Bio
Fujifilm Irvine Adds Two New Media Types to its Portfolio
Fujifilm Irvine Scientific, part of Fujifilm Corporation, has added two new, chemically defined growth media—BalanCD CHO Perfusion (Liquid | Powder) and BalanCD CHO DG44 (Liquid | Powder)—to its portfolio of cell-culture media. The new additions expand Fujifilm’s media platform with specific media designed to support DG44 cell lines and perfusion culture platforms for the commercialization of monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins, biosimilars, and other biotherapeutics.
BalanCD CHO Perfusion medium is a chemically defined, animal-component-free medium for use steady-state, perfusion CHO (Chinese ovary hamster) culture. Designed for high-cell density conditions and to deliver high titers, BalanCD CHO DG44 medium is specifically developed for CHO DG44 cell lines.
Source: Fujifilm Irvine Scientific
Formulation Development/Drug Product Manufacturing
Meridian Medical Technologies Investing $100 M in Facility Expansion
Meridian Medical Technologies, part of Kindeva Drug Delivery, a CDMO focused on drug–device combination products, is investing more than $100 million over four years to expand a newly purchased manufacturing facility in Bridgeton, Missouri. Meridian will be converting the new 155,000-square-foot facility to support increased production of drug-device combination products and sterile fill–finish capabilities.
In December 2022, Kindeva Drug Delivery (formerly 3M Drug Delivery Systems), a CDMO of drug-delivery services, and Meridian Medical Technologies, a Saint Louis, Michigan-based CDMO of autoinjectors, completed their merger. Kindeva and Meridian are both operating companies of Altaris, a healthcare investment firm. Kindeva was acquired by Altaris in 2020 from 3M Company, and Meridian was acquired by Altaris in December 2021 from Pfizer.
The company’s new facility is expected to be completed in 2024.
Source: Meridian Medical Technologies
Investment firm Bridgewest Group Acquires former Pfizer Sterile Injectables Mfg Facility; Launches New CDMO Business
Bridgewest Group, an investment firm, has completed the acquisition of a sterile injectables manufacturing facility in Bentley, a suburb of Perth, Australia, from Pfizer and has launched a new CDMO of sterile injectable drug products, NovaCina.
The 34,000-square-meter cGMP facility has nine production lines across oncology/high-potency, blow–fill–seal and multi-format vial streams at clinical and commercial scales. The plant will operate as a CDMO under the name NovaCina moving forward and will continue to produce drug products for Pfizer under a master services agreement. The facility has over 400 employees.
In addition, Brett Alderson, formerly Site Manager of the facility, has been appointed President of NovaCina. He has more than 25 years of experience at Pfizer (Perth) Pty, a subsidiary of Pfizer.
Source: Bridgewest Group (facility acquisition) and Bridgewest Group (CDMO launch)
Thermo Fisher Adds Early-Stage Development of Oral Solid Dosage Forms at Facility in France
Thermo Fisher Scientific is adding early-development work for oral, solid-dose products at its site in Bourgoin, France, to support early-stage drug development through commercial manufacturing.
In late 2021, the French government’s France Relance economic stimulus plan provided a grant to support the early-development hub. Construction work began during the first quarter of 2022, and activities were first launched in June 2022.
In addition to expanded GMP facilities, the early development hub includes a 430-square-meter research and development facility for pre-clinical, non-GMP operations. Bourgoin is a Thermo Fisher Center of Excellence in Europe for oral solid dose end-to-end drug-product development and high-potent substance handling.
Source: Thermo Fisher Scientific
Packaging
Catalent Begins $20-M Expansion of Clinical Supply Facility
Catalent has begun construction of a $20-million expansion project at its clinical supply facility in Schorndorf, Germany.
The expansion will add 32,000 square feet of capacity for the storage and handling of clinical trial supply materials at controlled room temperatures between 15 and 25 degrees Celsius and create space in the original building to accommodate the installation of a new, fully automatic bottle filling line. Work on the site is expected to be completed by June 2024.
Source: Catalent
