Up next

Supplier News: Apiject, Borealis Pharma, Sharp & Rentschler Biopharma 

The latest from CDMOs, CMOs, and suppliers featuring Apiject, Borealis Pharma, Sharp & Rentschler Biopharma.  

Formulation Development/Drug Product Manufacturing 
* Apiject Signs Lease for Blow-Fill-Seal Facility 
Packaging 
* Borealis Pharma Investing $57 M in Polypropylene Mfg Facility 
* Sharp Investing $23 M in Injectable Packaging Facility 
Appointments 
* Rentschler Biopharma Announces Leadership Changes 
* Avid Bioservices Names Chief Business Officer 

Formulation Development/Drug Product Manufacturing 

Apiject Signs Lease for Blow-Fill-Seal Facility  
Apiject Holdings, a CDMO of injectables, has announced the signing of a lease for a 30,000-square-foot pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Apex, North Carolina.  

The facility will house two advanced blow–fill–seal production lines and operate as an FDA-registered 503B outsourcing facility focused on producing essential generic injectable medicines currently on the US Food and Drug Administration’s drug shortage list. The site will also serve as the corporate headquarters of Vanguard Utility, Apiject’s operational subsidiary. 

Source: Apiject 

Packaging 

Borealis Pharma Investing $57 M in Polypropylene Mfg Facility 
Borealis Pharma, a Vienna-based manufacturer of polyolefins, has announced a EUR 49 million ($57 million) investment to scale up production of its Borstar Nextension polypropylene at its manufacturing site in Burghausen, Germany. This will expand commercial production of single-site polypropylene grades that deliver enhanced purity, processability, and performance. 

Source: Borealis Pharma 

Sharp Investing $23 M in Injectable Packaging Facilities 
Sharp, a provider of contract packaging, clinical supply services, and small-scale sterile manufacturing, is investing over EUR 20 million ($23 million) in its European packaging facilities. The investment is focused on adding capacity and capabilities for the assembly, labelling, packaging and cold storage of a variety of injectable formats, including autoinjectors, pen devices, pre-filled syringes and vials, at Sharp’s facilities in Hamont-Achel, Belgium and Heerenveen, the Netherlands. 

The expansion at the Belgian facility will quadruple existing cold-chain warehouse capacity and double ambient storage space as well as add a new syringe assembly and blister packaging suite. Additional device-assembly and packaging capacity are also planned. In addition, Cobot (collaborative robot) technology has been introduced to enhance production efficiency for adjacent pre-filled syringe and autoinjector packaging lines. 

The facility in Hamont-Achel has been upgraded to also include a carport solar system. The system is expected to supply 50% of the site’s electricity demand in clean, renewable electricity once fully commissioned in mid-2026. Sharp’s Netherlands facility will expand its GMP production capacity, including the addition of two Grade D packaging suites, to accommodate new syringe assembly and packaging programs and vial packaging capacity, which is due to come online in 2026. 

This investment in Sharp’s Belgium and Netherlands facilities is part of a larger $100-million investment announced in October 2025. 

Source: Sharp 

Appointments 

Rentschler Biopharma Announces Leadership Changes 
Rentschler Biopharma, a Laupheim, Germany-based CDMO of biologics, has announced changes to its Executive Board. The Supervisory Board and Benedikt von Braunmuehl, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), have mutually agreed that von Braunmuehl will step down from the Executive Board. To ensure continuity and full operational effectiveness, Uwe Buecheler, PhD, Vice Chairman of the Supervisory Board, will assume the role of interim CEO, effective immediately (as announced on January 20, 2025, until a new CEO is appointed. 

Buecheler brings over three decades of experience in the global bio/pharmaceutical industry and the CDMO sector. Since 2024, he has served as Vice Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Rentschler Biopharma. 

Additionally, the company reported that Christiane Bardroff, Chief Operating Officer (COO), has decided to pursue a new professional opportunity after four years at Rentschler Biopharma and will leave the company during the first quarter of this year (2026). Her successor has already been appointed by the Supervisory Board, but has not yet been announced. 

In a separate announcement, the company announced that Detra Glinatsis, currently Vice President, Business Development at Northway Biotech, has been appointed Head of Business Development US.  

Glinatsis brings over 20 years of sales and business development experience in the pharmaceutical, biotech and contract manufacturing industries. She joins Rentschler Biopharma from Northway Biotech, where she was Vice President, Business Development. She previously held roles of increasing responsibility at AGC Biologics, Sartorius, Gallus BioPharmaceuticals, and Avecia Biologic, as well as Rentschler Biopharma, where, earlier in her career, she was Senior Director, Business Development.  

Source: Rentschler Biopharma (CEO Change) & Rentschler Biopharma (Business Development) 

Avid Bioservices Names Chief Business Officer 
Avid Bioservices, a CDMO of biologics, has announced the appointment of Rich McAvoy, formerly Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for Fujifilm Biotechnologies, a biologics CDMO, as Chief Business Officer.  

Prior to joining Avid, McAvoy was most recently CFO of Fujifilm Biotechnologies where he led its strategic investments management, operational finance, accounting, legal, compliance, and risk-management functions. Prior to that, McAvoy held a variety of leadership positions in Fujifilm Biotechnologies, Novo Nordisk, and Alston & Bird LLP. 

Source: Avid Bioservices