WuXi Acquires Drug-Product Plant; Catalent Expands; Stevanato in Pact
The latest news from CDMOs, CMOs, and suppliers featuring WuXi Biologics, Catalent, Stevanato, Wasdell, and Evotec.
Chemicals/Chemical API Manufacturing
Evotec, leon-nanodrugs Enter Pact for Nanomedicine
Evotec, a Hamburg, Germany-based drug-discovery and development company, has entered into a strategic partnership and made an equity investment in leon-nanodrugs GmbH, a Munich, Germany-based company offering services for nanoparticles and microparticles, under which the companies will cooperate on selected development programs and clinical and commercial nanomedicines.
Leon’s proprietary technology is aimed at suspending active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in tailored nanoparticles to provide enhanced solubility, bioavailability, and stability. Evotec will use leon’s proprietary technology through the company’s API manufacturing and CMC (chemistry, manufacturing and controls) capabilities.
Evotec has made an equity investment in leon by leading the company’s Series B funding round. Lead investor Evotec and BayBG, an investment firm, join the existing investors, TVM Life Science Innovation I, CD-Venture GmbH, Albany Private Equity Holdings, Eckenstein-Geigy-Stiftung, and LOF Leon Partnership, L.P.
Source: Evotec and leon-nanodrugs GmbH
Formulation Development/Drug-Product Manufacturing
Upperton Invests $625,000 in Tablet Formulation, Mfg Capabilities
Upperton Pharma Solutions, a Nottingham, UK-based CDMO that develops and produces oral and inhalation drug products for clinical trials, has invested £500,000 ($625,000) to expand its tablet manufacturing capabilities with the addition of tablet-processing equipment for wet granulation, roller compaction, tablet compression, hardness testing, dedusting, weight sorting and tablet coating. The investment was made in 2019 and is continuing in 2020.
Source: Upperton Pharma Solutions
WuXi Completes Bayer Mfg Plant Acquisition, PFS Filling at Robotic Aseptic Filling Facility
WuXi Biologics, a contract biologics manufacturer, has completed the acquisition of a drug-product manufacturing plant of Bayer’s in Leverkusen, Germany.
Under the asset-acquisition agreement signed in January (January 2020), WuXi Biologics has taken over the plant operations, purchased plant equipment, and signed a long-term building lease contract. Equipped with a drug-product filling line, the plant will provide sterile filling and freeze-drying services of up to 10 million vials per year.
In a separate development, WuXi Biologics announced that its robotic aseptic-filling isolator facility has successfully completed the filling of two batches of prefilled syringes. The whole process was performed using the robotic filling isolator in a closed system without gloves or human intervention. The company filled 30 vials per minute with an acceptance rate of up to 99.1%. The facility is able to fill and close multiple container types, including vials, prefilled syringe, and cartridges.
Source: WuXi Biologics (Bayer) and WuXi Biologics (Aseptic Filling Facility)
Packaging
Catalent Completes $14-M Packaging Expansion at Indiana Facility
Catalent has completed a $14-million expansion at its Bloomington, Indiana facility to increase biologics packaging capabilities and capacity.
The expansion adds 15,000 square feet of packaging infrastructure to the biologics and sterile manufacturing site, including five new packaging suites and a new quality control laboratory.
Catalent’s 875,000 square-feet facility in Bloomington has capabilities in sterile formulation and biomanufacturing and drug-product fill–finish capacity across liquid and lyophilized vials, prefilled syringes, and cartridges.
Source: Catalent
Stevanato Group, Cambridge Design Partnership Enter Development Pact
Stevanato Group, a producer of glass parenteral packaging, headquartered in Padua, Italy, and Cambridge Design Partnership (CDP), a UK- and US-based technology and product-design company, have formed an agreement for the development of a pen-injector based on technology and intellectual property licensed exclusively from Haselmeier, a developer and manufacturer of self-injection devices, based in Switzerland.
The agreement uses CDP’s design and development expertise in drug-delivery devices, and Stevanato Group’s experience in glass containers, tooling, injection molding, device assembly, and its global commercial network.
Source: Stevanato Group and Cambridge Design Partnership
Wasdell Group Acquires Specialist Packaging Supplier
The Wasdell Group, a Newcastle, UK-headquartered CDMO and contract packager, has acquired Planned Packaging Limited & Planned Packaging Films Limited, a specialist packaging supplier to the medical device and pharmaceutical sectors.
Planned Packaging supplies medical device manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies in the UK, Europe and the Americas. Its product range includes pre-made easy-peel pouches, high- barrier foil films, and semi-rigid materials for processing through thermoforming lines.
Source: Wasdell
