The CDMO says the funding will support delivery of rapid access to lentiviral vectors for pre-clinical development, clinical trials, and commercialization. Vector BioMed, a contract development manufacturing and organization (CDMO) focusing on the production of lentiviral vectors, has launched after its first financing round. “The first tranche was $7.5 million of $15 million,” a spokesperson for the start-up told BioProcess Insider. The funding aims to take the company’s vector-based medicinal concepts from the clinic and accelerate them towards commercialization. To…

BioNTech says the completion of its first inhouse plasmid DNA (pDNA) facility in Marburg, Germany aims to increase manufacturing flexibility and support its oncology and COVID-19 pipeline. pDNA acts as an important starting material for the production of messenger RNA (mRNA) based therapeutic and vaccines, including cell therapies. The recently completed facility – which was acquired from Novartis in September 2020 – will enable BioNTech to independently manufacture pDNA for various clinical product candidates, as well as commercial products for…

Bionova Scientific has commissioned a third CDMO facility in Fremont, California, freeing space to quadruple manufacturing capacity at its nearby plant. Bionova, which fully transitioned into a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) in November 2021, and was later acquired by Asahi Kasei Medical in April 2022, is set to begin the first phase of its strategic expansion. The firm already operates from two facilities in Fremont. One of the plants acts as its headquarters and the other is a development…

Sanofi plans to let go of all its employees at its manufacturing facilities near Hyderbad, following an operations review. According to Reuters, the decision for French drug maker Sanofi to let go of all employees at its two Indian vaccine plants follows the firm’s failure to win a UNICEF contract. The article outlined around 800 members of staff could be affected by the decision and said the Sanofi sources are not being named due to confidentiality. “Over the last few…

Kaneka Eurogentec says the investment will create a production capacity approximately five times higher than at its plant in Liège, Belgium. Contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) Kaneka Eurogentec, an affiliate of Kaneka Corporation, provides offerings including plasmid DNA (pDNA), recombinant proteins, and oligonucleotide services. In 2020, the company started production services for messenger RNA (mRNA) and the $15 million investment aims to scale-up capacity and expand its CDMO business with operations expected to begin from the end of this year. According…