Supplier News: Recipharm, Catalent, SK, Avid & More
The latest from CDMOs, CMOs, and suppliers featuring Recipharm, Catalent, SK Inc./Center for Breakthrough Medicines, Avid Bioservices, RoslinCT, Cellipont Bioservices, INCOG BioPharma Services and Symbiosis Pharmaceutical Services.
General
Recipharm Divests API & Drug Product Facilities
Recipharm, a CDMO of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and drug products, has completed separate sales of an API manufacturing facility in the UK and a solid-dose manufacturing site in France.
Recipharm divested the former Aesica Pharmaceuticals’ API manufacturing facility in Cramlington, UK, near Newcastle, UK, to Pharmaron, a Beijing-based R&D service provider for the life-sciences industry. Recipharm acquired Consort Medical, the parent company of Aesica, a CDMO of APIs and drug products, and Bespak, a CDMO of drug devices for £505 million ($629 million) in 2020.
Recipharm also sold its solid-dose manufacturing site in Fontaine-lès-Dijon, France to Astrea Pharma, a newly formed CDMO of oral solid dosage products. Astrea’s owners have financial backing from Groupe Chevrillon, an investment firm for industrial and service companies.
Source: Recipharm (UK) and Recipharm (France)
Biologics Manufacturing
Avid Bioservices Expands California Facility
Avid Bioservices, a biologics CDMO, has opened a second downstream processing suite within the company’s existing Myford North facility in Tustin, California.
This new downstream processing suite was constructed as the first phase of the company’s two-part Myford facility expansion. Avid has completed the validation of equipment and is now scheduling new business into the suite.
The second phase of Avid’s Myford facility expansion, for which construction has been begun, is designed to further expand capacity through the build-out of a second manufacturing train, including both upstream and downstream processing suites within Myford South. Avid also recently announced plans for the construction of a 53,000-square-foot viral-vector development and manufacturing facility.
Source: Avid Bioservices
SK Invests $350 M in Cell- & Gene-Therapy CDMO
SK Inc. has taken a $350-million equity stake in the Center for Breakthrough Medicines (CBM), a King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based CDMO of cell and gene therapies. SK Inc. is a Seoul, South Korea-based conglomerate and the parent company of the CDMO, Sk pharmteco.
CBM, which is housed at The Discovery Labs site in King of Prussia, will use the funding to enhance its preclinical through commercial manufacturing capabilities. Existing and future capabilities include process development, viral-vector manufacturing, cell processing, plasmid DNA, cell banking, and analytical development and testing capabilities. In addition to supporting lab and GMP suite build-out, the funding will also enable strategic joint ventures, sponsored research agreements, and development of proprietary technology platforms.
Source: Center for Breakthrough Medicines
GHO Capital Invests in Cell-Therapy CDMO RoslinCT
RoslinCT, a CDMO of advanced cell therapies, has received funding from Global Healthcare Opportunities (GHO Capital), a European investment firm, to increase development and manufacturing capacity.
Established in 2006 in Edinburgh, Scotland, RoslinCT was formed through an initial spinout from the Roslin Institute, a research institute at the University of Edinburg, Since 2014, the company has had a manufacturing base within the University of Edinburgh’s Center for Regenerative Medicine.
Source: RoslinCT
Performance Cell Manufacturing Acquired by PE Firm
Performance Cell Manufacturing, a CDMO of cell therapies, has been acquired by Great Point Partners, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based private investment firm focused on the healthcare industry. As part of the transaction, the company also will operate under a new name: Cellipont Bioservices.
This is the latest in a series of CDMO investments by Great Point Partners. The firm has also made investments in other CDMOs, including Cytovance Biologics, MaSTherCell (now part of Catalent), Tergus Pharma, and Bionova Scientific.
Cellipont Bioservices’ Board of Directors has appointed Deborah Wild as President and Chief Executive Officer and Will James as Chief Financial Officer. Carolyn Wrightson, who has served as Chief Operating Officer for the predecessor company for more than 15 years, will continue in that role.
Source: Cellipont Bioservices
Formulation Development/Drug Product Manufacturing
INCOG BioPharma Nears Completion of Sterile Mfg Facility
INCOG BioPharma Services, a recently formed CDMO of sterile injectables, is nearing completion on the construction of new 90,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and global headquarters in Fishers, Indiana. The facility will support early-phase clinical projects to commercial-scale manufacturing.
INCOG BioPharma Services was founded in 2020 and purchased the land for new facility in December 2020.
In addition, the company will be offering development, analytical testing, stability studies, and storage (including cold-chain storage) starting in the first half of 2022 and will be fully operational and will begin offering cGMP manufacturing in the third quarter of 2022.
Source: INCOG BioPharma Services
Symbiosis Upgrades Facilities for BSL-2 Handling
Symbiosis Pharmaceutical Services, a Stirling, UK-based CDMO of sterile manufacturing services, has completed a physical and regulatory upgrade to its existing manufacturing suites to enable the safe manufacture of biopharmaceutical products that require Biosafety Level 2 handling. This allows Symbiosis to meet the needs of the expanding viral vector cell and gene therapy market and allow for greater flexibility in the way existing and novel products can be handled.
Source: Symbiosis Pharmaceutical Services
Packaging
Catalent Increases Cold-Chain Packaging Capabilities
Catalent has increased cold-chain packaging capabilities at its Philadelphia facility for the distribution of biologic drugs and advanced cell and gene therapies.
Work has been undertaken at the facility to expand the packaging area by around 20,000 square feet and includes the addition of seven new temperature-controlled processing suites. Further ambient space has also been added for packaging operations and materials storage.
The new suites include full serialization capabilities and are specifically designed for small-scale batches of commercial products. Validation of the equipment is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2022.
Source: Catalent
