Supplier News: Fujifilm, Thermo Fisher, Kindeva & More
The latest from CDMOs, CMOs, and suppliers featuring Fujifilm, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Kindeva, Zydus Lifesciences, Becton Dickinson, Lupin/PolyPeptide, Fresenius Kabi/TQ Therapeutics, Bionova Scientific/Syenex, Symbiosis, Kincell, Charles River Laboratories, West Pharmaceuticals, Coating Place, Cellares, and Medpharm.
Chemicals/Chemical API Manufacturing
* CDMOs Lupin Manufacturing, PolyPeptide Form Alliance in Peptides
Biologics Manufacturing s
* Fujifilm Opens Antibody Drug Plant in Japan
* Zydus Lifesciences Forms Biologicals CDMO
* Fresenius Kabi, TQ Therapeutics Partner in Cell Manufacturing
* Bionova Scientific, Syenex Form Strategic Alliance for pDNA in Advanced Therapies
* Cellares Announces New HQ, Mfg Facility
Formulation Development/Drug Product Manufacturing
* Becton Dickinson Investing $110 M in Syringe Mfg Facility Expansion
* Symbosis Begins Commercial Production at New Fill-Finish Facility
* Coating Place Secures Growth Capital Funding
* MedPharm Completes FDA Inspection of Drug-Product Facility
General
* Thermo Fisher Scientific in AI Pacts With Nvidia, TetraScience
Packaging
* AbbVie To Acquire Drug Delivery Device Mfg Facility from West Pharmaceuticals for $175 M
Appointments
* Kindeva Appoints New CEO
* Kincell Bio Names New CEO
* Charles River Laboratories Appoints New CEO
Chemicals/Chemical API Manufacturing
CDMOs Lupin Manufacturing, PolyPeptide Form Alliance in Peptides
Lupin Manufacturing Solutions, a CDMO and part of Lupin, a Mumbai, India-based bio/pharmaceutical company, has entered an agreement with PolyPeptide Group, a CDMO of peptides and oligonucleotides, to enhance supply-chain resilience, improve operational efficiency, and accelerate readiness in serving the global peptides market.
As part of the alliance, both companies will work towards expanding sourcing options and fortifying peptide supply chains to meet rising global demand for peptide active pharmaceutical ingredients, including for metabolic disease therapies. They will also aim to integrate procurement and supply planning.
Source: Lupin
Biologics Manufacturing
Fujifilm Opens Antibody Drug Plant in Japan
Fujifilm Corporation has announced the completion of a new antibody drug manufacturing facility in Toyama, Japan, at Fujifilm Toyama Chemical.
The new plant is the company’s first antibody drug manufacturing plant in Japan and is scheduled to be operational in 2027. Together with an adjacent plant currently under construction, Fujifilm is seeking to establish end-to-end manufacturing services covering drug-substance manufacturing through finished goods and packaging, serving as the company’s bio CDMO hub in Asia.
The new plant is equipped with 2 x 5,000-L mammalian cell-culture bioreactors, as well as 2 x 2,000-L bioreactors.
Source: Fujifilm Corporation
Zydus Lifesciences Forms Biologicals CDMO
Zydus Lifesciences, an Ahmedabad, India-based bio/pharmaceutical company, has completed its acquisition of the manufacturing assets of Agenus, a Lexington, Massachusetts bio/pharmaceutical company specializing in immuno-oncology, to form a new biologics US-based CDMO, Zylidac Bio, in a $141-million deal. The deal was announced in June 2025.
The deal included Agenus’ manufacturing facilities in Emeryville and Berkeley, California for $75 million upfront plus contingent payments up to $50 million, and a $16-million equity stake in Agenus by Zydus. All acquired manufacturing assets and operations will be housed under a newly formed, dedicated US based subsidiary named Zylidac Bio, a new biologics CDMO.
Zydus’ CDMO business will operate as an independent entity and will house the acquired manufacturing capabilities. Agenus will become Zydus’ first CDMO customer through an exclusive manufacturing agreement for Agenus’ investigational immuno-oncology candidates, botensilimab and balstilimab. In addition, Zydus will also have first right of negotiation to manufacture any of the future pipeline products developed by Agenus.
Agenus will also receive up to an additional $50 million in contingent payments, to be paid over three years, triggered by botensilimab/balstilimab production orders, and an exclusive license to develop and commercialize botensilimab/balstilimab in India and Sri Lanka, with Agenus paying to Zydus a 5% royalty on net sales in those countries.
Zydus also made a $16-million equity investment in Agenus by purchasing approximately 2.1 million shares of Agenus common stock at $7.50 per share, totaling approximately $16 million in gross proceeds. Agenus says it intends to apply the net proceeds from the sale of the purchased shares for working capital and general corporate purposes and to accelerate ongoing clinical development, registration. and potential commercialization of botensilimab/balstilimab.
Source: Zydus Lifesciences & Agenus
Fresenius Kabi, TQ Therapeutics Partner in Cell Manufacturing
Fresenius Kabi, a bio/pharmaceutical company and CDMO, and TQ Therapeutics, a Planegg, Germany-based technology company, have entered an agreement under which Fresenius Kabi has an exclusive license to develop, manufacture, and distribute products that incorporate TQ Therapeutics’ cell-selection technology.
Under the agreement, TQ Therapeutics’ affinity and column-based cell isolation technology will be integrated into Fresenius Kabi’s Cue cell-processing system. By combining these technologies, the companies aim to create an automated and robust system that can isolate T cells from whole blood and apheresis products in less than two hours for cell- and gene-therapy manufacturing applications. The goal of the collaboration is to quickly, easily, and consistently produce high-purity T cells.
Source: TQ Therapeutics
Bionova Scientific, Syenex Form Strategic Alliance for pDNA in Advanced Therapies
Bionova Scientific, a Fremont, California-based CDMO of biologics and part of Asahi Kasei Group, has entered an agreement with Syenex, a genetic medicines platform company, to expand global access to DNA plasmids for gene delivery for advanced cell and gene therapies.
Under the agreement, Bionova will serve as the preferred manufacturing partner for Syenex’s delivery platforms. In parallel, Bionova expands its off-the-shelf and custom lentiviral vector plasmid system offerings. The alliance also provides optionality for active and late-stage programs, allowing developers to optimize or re-engineer plasmid systems between clinical phases through structured comparability strategies using either Bionova’s or Syenex’s development platforms.
Source: Bionova Scientific
Cellares Announces New HQ, Mfg Facility
Cellares, a CDMO of cell therapies, has announced it has secured a site and signed a long-term lease for a new facility in Leiden, the Netherlands. The facility will serve as Cellares’ European headquarters and expand the company’s global manufacturing network with dedicated regional capacity.
The leased premises comprise approximately 105,000 square feet of laboratory and office space within the nexus building in Leiden, a newly constructed life-sciences facility currently under development and expected to be delivered in the first quarter of 2026. Following delivery, Cellares plans to complete a phased fit-out to prepare the facility for operations, with initial occupancy anticipated later in 2026.
Source: Cellares
Formulation Development/Drug Product Manufacturing
Becton Dickinson Investing $110 M in Syringe Mfg Facility Expansion
Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) has announced a $110-million investment to expand its production of glass prefillable syringes in Columbus, Nebraska.
BD is investing $100 million to establish BD Neopak glass prefillable syringe production at its Columbus site, with supply expected to begin in mid-2026. This investment will also support additional line upgrades and capacity improvements across the site, ensuring BD can meet growing global demand for advanced injectable solutions. In addition, BD is investing $10 million to enhance cannula manufacturing capabilities at the site, and together these investments will add approximately 120 new jobs.
Source: Becton, Dickinson and Company
Symbosis Begins Commercial Production at New Fill-Finish Facility
Symbiosis, a CDMO of injectables, has manufactured its first 10,000-vial batch at the company’s new facility in Stirling, UK. This production batch of 10,000 vials marks a milestone in the company’s planned expansion of its sterile manufacturing capacity.
Source: Symbiosis
Coating Place Secures Growth Capital Funding
Coating Place, a CDMO of microencapsulation, has secured a strategic growth investment from 1315 Capital, a Philadelphia-based healthcare-focused private equity firm. The investment will enable Coating Place to scale operations to meet growing demand for its services across pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, animal health, and industrial markets.
Source: Coating Place
MedPharm Completes FDA Inspection of Drug Product Facility
MedPharm, a CDMO, has announced that its topical drug-product manufacturing facility in Durham, North Carolina, has successfully completed a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspection for commercial manufacture of drug products.
Source: MedPharm
General
Thermo Fisher Scientific in AI Pacts With Nvidia, TetraScience
Thermo Fisher Scientific has announced agreements focused on AI with Nvidia and TetraScience, a Boston-based AI company.
The partnership with Nvidia will apply the Nvidia AI platform and Thermo Fisher Scientific solutions to progressively increase the automation, accuracy and speed of laboratories. The companies are working together to evolve the digital foundation for scientific instruments, laboratory infrastructure and data to connect them to AI solutions to enable scientists to reduce manual steps.
In parallel, the collaboration with TetraScience will integrate Thermo Fisher’s instrumentation and informatics solutions to realize the value of scientific data at scale. Alongside Thermo Fisher’s AI capabilities, Tetra AI—the intelligence layer that connects data and workflows to guide scientific decision-making and surface cross-domain insights—will help establish high-value use cases to improve reproducibility, throughput and scalability in therapies across R&D and manufacturing.
Source: Thermo Fisher Scientific & TetraScience
Packaging
AbbVie To Acquire Drug Delivery Device Mfg Facility from West Pharmaceuticals for $175 M
AbbVie has agreed to acquire a device manufacturing facility in Tempe, Arizona and associated intellectual property from West Pharmaceutical Services, a provider of packaging components and delivery systems for injectable drugs and healthcare products, for $175 million.
AbbVie plans to hire approximately 200 employees at the site and invest more than $175 million to acquire, as well as modernize and fully integrate it into its global manufacturing network. The combination of this acquisition and associated planned investments are part of AbbVie’s commitment to expanding its pharmaceutical manufacturing in the US.
The transaction includes the transfer of manufacturing facilities, including multiple production lines, and 3.5-mL on-body injector technology to support production of current and next-generation AbbVie immunology and neuroscience medicines. The transaction is anticipated to close in mid-2026, subject to closing conditions.
Source: AbbVie
Appointments
Kindeva Appoints New CEO
Kindeva, a CDMO of injectables, drug-delivery services and autoinjectors, has appointed David Stevens, most recently President at Kindeva, as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as of January 1, 2026. As part of this transition, Milton Boyer has stepped down from his role as CEO. Boyer will continue to serve as an independent member of the Board of Directors to provide strategic guidance and continuity.
Source: Kindeva
Kincell Bio Names New CEO
Kincell Bio, a CDMO of cell therapies, has announced the appointment of Lawrence Pitcher, currently Chief Operating Officer (COO), to Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Pitcher succeeds Mark R. Bamforth, who guided the company through a successful phase of growth as CEO and will continue to support the transition in a strategic capacity as Executive Chair of the Board.
Pitcher has served as COO since March 2025. Prior to joining Kincell Bio, he served as Vice President and General Manager at Catalent’s Maryland gene-therapy site. His earlier roles included leadership positions at Thermo Fisher, Brammer Bio, and RTI Surgical across Europe and the US. .
Source: Kincell Bio
Charles River Laboratories Names New CEO
Charles River Laboratories, a Wilmington, Massachusetts-headquartered CRO/CDMO, has appointed Birgit Girshick, current Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). She succeeds James C. Foster, Chair, President, who plans to retire, effective on May 5, 2026.
Girshick has held positions of increasing responsibility beginning in the Research Models & Services and Avian Vaccine Services businesses when she joined the company in 1989. In 2004, Girshick was promoted to General Manager of the Avian Vaccine Services business. She was named Corporate Vice President, Global Biopharmaceutical Services (now Biologics Testing Solutions) in 2010, promoted to Corporate Senior Vice President, Research Models and Biologics Testing Solutions in 2023, assumed responsibility in 2016 for leading the integration of the WIL Research acquisition, and was later named head of the global Discovery Services business.
In 2018, she was promoted to Corporate Executive Vice President overseeing the Discovery, Safety Assessment, Biologics Testing Solutions, and Avian Vaccine Services businesses. In 2021, she also assumed responsibility for the company’s Cell and Gene Therapy CDMO business. In October 2021, Girshick was promoted to Chief Operating Officer, and assumed the additional oversight of the Research Models and Services business, the business in which she began her Charles River career, as well as the Microbial Solutions business.
Source: Charles River Laboratories
