Supplier News: Vetter, Resilience, Almac, Recipharm & More
The latest from CDMOs, CMOs, and suppliers featuring Vetter, Almac, Resilience, Recipharm, Kindeva Drug Delivery, Aptar Pharma, and NightHawk Biosciences.
Biologics Manufacturing
* Resilience to Expand Staff, Biologics Ops in Ohio
* NightHawk Biosciences, Parent of CDMO Scorpius BioManufacturing, Focuses on CDMO Biz
Formulation Development/Drug Product Manufacturing
* Vetter Investing $252 M for New Aseptic Filling Building in Germany
* Almac Investing $102 M to Expand Drug-Product Mfg Capacity, Diagnostics Biz
* Recipharm, Oz-UK in Pact for Green Propellant for Inhalers
* Kindeva Drug Delivery, Orbia Partner for Eco-Friendly Propellant for Inhalers
Packaging
* Aptar Pharma Opens New Mfg Site in Mumbai
Biologics Manufacturing
Resilience to Expand Staff, Biologics Ops in Ohio
National Resilience, a CDMO of biologics and advanced therapies, is expanding its operations in West Chester, Ohio, and has committed to the addition of 440 new jobs across a wide variety of jobs, including manufacturing engineering, quality control, IT, and management. Of that, 274 will be direct employees and 166 will be contracted employees.
Source: National Resilience
NightHawk Biosciences, Parent of CDMO Scorpius BioManufacturing, Focuses on CDMO Biz
NightHawk Biosciences, the parent company of Scorpius BioManufacturing, a CDMO of biologics, has agreed to divest NightHawk’s subsidiary, Elusy Therapeutics, a bio/pharmaceutical company focused on developing antibody therapeutics for treating infectious diseases. To facilitate this strategic shift, the company has eliminated most of its R&D and associated expenses to focus its resources on growing and expanding Scorpius.
The assets will be acquired by a private company established by Jeff Wolf, CEO of NightHawk, which will assume Elusys’ contracted financial commitments, currently estimated at over $40 million. Under the transaction, the private company will also provide an upfront payment of $500,000, a note for $2.25 million that is convertible into shares of NightHawk’s common stock subject to receipt of stockholder approval, and royalties of 3% on all of Elusys’ gross sales until June 30, 2031. The royalties are subject to a mandatory minimum payment of $5 million during the first five years of the royalty term. The divestiture of Elusys and R&D cuts are expected to reduce the company’s annual operating expenses by over $13 million and fully eliminate the need for NightHawk to raise capital to support Elusys’ programs.
Source: NightHawk Biosciences
Formulation Development/Drug Product Manufacturing
Vetter Investing $252 M for New Aseptic Filling Building in Germany
Vetter, a Ravensburg, Germany-headquartered CDMO of aseptic filling and packaging, is investing EUR 230 million ($252 million) in a new production building, which is currently under construction at its global corporate headquarters site in Ravensburg, Germany. The company first announced the investment in October (October 2023).
The shell of the building is complete, following the start of construction in November 2021. The building is 122 meters long, 44 meters wide, and 32 meters tall and will feature several new commercial filling lines to increase aseptic manufacturing capacity. Vetter is planning to install the first cleanrooms by the end of 2024.
Source: Vetter
Almac Investing $102 M to Expand Drug-Product Mfg Capacity, Diagnostics Biz The Almac Group, a Craigavon, UK-based CDMO of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and drug products, is investing £80 million ($102 million) to build new manufacturing, production and diagnostic laboratory facilities at its global headquarters in Craigavon, Northern Ireland. The company first announced the investment in October (October 2023).
The first of these two major projects is a 100,000-square-foot multi-product GMP facility for Almac Pharma Services, which provides services for formulation development and drug products. The Center of Excellence for manufacturing will house a custom-designed dispensary area, multiple production suites, process equipment wash facilities, and a lineside warehouse for ambient, refrigerated and frozen storage. The new facility will primarily support solid oral dose products.
The facility, which will be operational in the third quarter of 2024, will expand Almac Pharma Services’ existing manufacturing capabilities and offers additional capacity for further strategic production contracts.
The second project is a 40,000-square-foot diagnostic development and manufacturing center for Almac Diagnostic Services, which provides services for biomarker discovery, development and commercialization, to expand its assay development offering and to manufacture and distribute companion diagnostic kits on a commercial scale. The expansion is slated to be completed by the first quarter of 2024.
The construction of these two facilities will create over 550 jobs locally, spanning a range of lab and non-lab-based roles. The expansions are part of the global investment program announced by Almac in 2022.
Source: Almac Group
Recipharm, Oz-UK in Pact for Green Propellant for Inhalers
Recipharm, a CDMO of active pharmaceutical ingredients, drug products, and drug-delivery devices, has formed a collaboration with Oz-UK, a CRO specializing in pressurized metered dose inhaler (pMDI) and liquid aerosol research & development, for the development and manufacture of “green” pMDIs.
The pMDIs will use valves and actuators from Recipharm, and low global warming potential (GWP) propellants. The first formulations will feature Koura’s Zephex HFA-152a, a used to reduce devices’ overall carbon footprint.
Source: Recipharm
Kindeva Drug Delivery, Orbia Partner for Eco-Friendly Propellant for Inhalers
Kindeva Drug Delivery, a CDMO of drug-delivery services and autoinjectors, and Orbia Advance Corporation’s fluorinated solutions business, Koura, have entered a co-development collaboration for the conversion of existing marketed pressurized metered dose inhaler (pMDI) products to Koura’s sustainable medical propellant, HFA 152a, known as Zephex 152a.
The collaboration will focus on accelerating the conversion of existing marketed pMDI inhaler products to low global warming potential (GWP) pMDIs using Koura’s Zephex 152a platform. The converted pMDI products will be available for licensing with anticipated launches occurring in line with the expected commencement of a phase-down of existing pMDI systems containing the propellants, HFC-134a and HFC-227ea, within the European Union.
Source: Kindeva Drug Delivery
Packaging
Aptar Pharma Opens New Mfg Site in Mumbai
Aptar Pharma, a provider of drug-delivery systems and services, has opened a new manufacturing site in Mumbai.
Manufacturing capabilities, which began in 2012 with the assembly and supply of metered dose valves and pumps, have now been expanded to increase manufacturing capacity in South East Asia. Assembly operations and product delivery to customers have already begun at Aptar’s new 7,000-square-meter site.
Source: Aptar Pharma