A roundup of manufacturing news from Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline, Takeda and Endo International. Highlights below. 

* Sanofi, GSK, Takeda Partner with Singapore To Advance Biomanufacturing 
* Endo To Stop Production and Sale of Cellulite Therapy 

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Sanofi, GSK, Takeda Partner with Singapore To Advance Biomanufacturing 
Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and Takeda are partnering with various government and universities in Singapore to boost the country’s biologics manufacturing capabilities. Participants in the partnership include: Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR); the National University of Singapore; Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and its innovation and enterprise company, NTUitive; and the Singapore Institute of Technology.   

Their partnership will be formalized through the Biologics Pharma Innovation Program Singapore (BioPIPS), a consortium initiated by A*STAR with support from the Singapore Economic Development Board. BioPIPS seeks to use research and innovation to grow Singapore’s manufacturing capabilities for biologics, both recombinant therapeutic proteins and vaccines. The consortium will bring together leading industry experts and Singapore’s research ecosystem to enhance manufacturing productivity, improve operational efficiency and achieve sustainability goals.  

Specifically, BioPIPS will have three workstreams, (1) the sensing and modelling workstream, which aims to use machine learning and mechanistic modelling technologies together with smart sensors to enable simplified and faster workflows; (2) the sustainability workstream, which focuses on sustainability issues in biologics and vaccines manufacturing, and will explore the use of materials and circular economy approaches to address this challenge, as well as models to promote more sustainable and resilient supply chains; and (3) the compliant agility workstream, which focuses on the removal of manual tasks to achieve greater productivity in manufacturing facilities while maintaining compliance status by using solutions, such as robotics and advanced analytics. 

BioPIPS is in line with Singapore’s manufacturing 2030 vision, which aims to anchor leading manufacturing activities to grow the country’s manufacturing value-add by 50% from 2020. 

Source: The Agency for Science, Technology and Research 

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Endo To Stop Production and Sale of Cellulite Therapy 
Endo International, a specialty pharma company, reports that it will cease the production and sale of Endo Aesthetics’ Qwo (collagenase clostridium histolyticum-aaes), used to treat moderate-to-severe cellulite, due to market concerns about the extent and variability of bruising following initial treatment as well as the potential for prolonged skin discoloration. 

Endo says that for more than a year, it had tried to address those concerns, including launching an open-label study in June 2022 to test different interventions and whether they might mitigate bruising. Although certain study cohorts’ results reflected a modest reduction of bruising area and severity, none achieved a consistent level of reduced bruising following initial treatment to adequately alleviate the market’s concerns. 

The decision is expected to result in annualized pre-tax cash savings of approximately $50 million to $60 million and a reduction of Endo’s global workforce by approximately 90 full-time positions. In connection with ceasing QWO production and sales, the company expects to incur pre-tax cash restructuring charges of approximately $15 million to $20 million and record a total pre-tax restructuring charge of approximately $235 million to $250 million in the fourth quarter 2022.  

Source: Endo International