CDMO Lonza has invested CHF 400 million in a site in Switzerland to expand its Ibex Solutions business, adding end-to-end services for biotech customers. Contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Lonza has launched today Ibex Design and Ibex Develop, offering smaller biopharma companies complete product lifecycle management. The CHF 400 million ($415 million) expansion follows the launch of the Ibex Solutions service in July 2017, which saw the firm look to provide flexible production capacity for biotherapeutics through a biopark…

Deal-Making
Eli Lilly on M&A: Balancing the science with the shareholders
Many early-phase acquisitions do not make sense for shareholders despite having promising assets, says Lilly’s CFO Joshua Smiley. About a third of Lilly’s pipeline comes from M&A. Speaking to attendees at the Morgan Stanley Healthcare Conference Broker Conference Call this month, Eli Lilly CFO Joshua Smiley said his firm is “interested in doing early stage clinical deals where we see compelling scientific rationale in our key therapeutic areas and that we can upgrade our pipeline.” But deals also need to…
Video news: Pall strategic deals aim to enable biosimilar and novel scale-up
Pall Corporation has inked separate partnerships with cell line and expression tech firms Celltheon and Aetos Biologics. The deals help enable both novel and biosimilar manufacturing, the firm says. At the 2018 BPI Conference in Boston, Massachusetts earlier this month, Pall Corporation announced it had entered into a strategic partnership with cell line and expression technology platform development company Celltheon Corporation. The deal combines Pall’s bioprocessing equipment and consumables with Celltheon’s SMART Expression Platform to offer customers integrated systems…
B-I working with CMO on viral therapies after $245m ViraTherapeutics buy
Boehringer Ingelheim has acquired ViraTherapeutics for €210 million ($245 million) and tells us how it will integrate the viral therapy firm into its oncology business. In September 2016, German biomanufacturer Boehringer Ingelheim partnered with Austrian based ViraTherapeutics GmbH to develop an oncolytic virus therapy platform and bring various programs through the clinic. As part of the deal, Boehringer Ingelheim had the right to acquire its collaborator after the conclusion of Phase I clinical development, something the firm has now undertaken…
Sanofi deal shows demand for CHO alternatives, says Dyadic
Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland has teamed with Dyadic to test the potential of the C1 fungus-based expression system for the manufacture of biologics and vaccines. The fully funded proof of concept research deal will see Sanofi-Aventis use Dyadic International’s C1 platform to overcome specific gene expression challenges across some of its vaccine and protein-based biologics “Sanofi sees huge value in C1 and the future of bioprocessing and biomanufacturing efficiencies with such a power horse and we are excited for the collaboration as…
Shire buys sanaplasma AG to support immunology business
Shire adds 14 centers to its European-based plasma collection network through an acquisition aimed at extending long-term plasma supply. Plasma is essential to the manufacture of immunoglobulin therapies for certain rare immunological diseases. Shire, which prides itself on orphan and hemophilia drugs, has more than 100 plasma collection centers in the US and Austria and has further expanded its presence through the acquisition of sanaplasma AG. “The transaction was an acquisition of 100% of sanaplasma AG,” Shire spokesperson Paris Barker…
Thermo Fisher back on the M&A train through BD buy
The addition of BD’s Advanced Bioprocessing business will boost Thermo Fisher Scientific’s cell culture media formulations offering. At the BioProcess International Conference in Boston, Massachusetts last week, news broke that equipment and reagent supplier Thermo Fisher agreed to buy the Advanced Bioprocessing business of medtech firm Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD). The business, which clocks in around $100 million (€86 million) annually, will add several peptones that enhance cell culture media formulations, aimed at improving yield and reduce variability in…
Sartorius combination tech deal a ‘win-win,’ says Repligen
Bioprocessing vendors Sartorius Stedim Biotech and Repligen Corporation have combined their bioreactor technologies to offer control integrated bioreactors for perfusion. Announced at the BioProcess International Conference in Boston this week, Sartorius and Repligen have inked a deal to integrate their respective technologies into a combined offering for biomanufacturers. Under terms of the deal, Repligen’s XCell ATF cell retention control technology will be combined into Sartorius’ BIOSTAT STR large-scale single-use bioreactors offering customers bioreactors used in perfusion cell culture applications between 50…
Samsung BioLogics says biosimilars important to utilize growing capacity
Samsung BioLogics has begun making biosimilar versions of Enbrel and Remicade for its joint venture Samsung Bioepis, the Korean press reports. South Korean news portal BusinessKorea reported recently that contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Samsung BioLogics has begun pilot production of two products on behalf of customer and joint venture entity Samsung Bioepis. The project sees the firm produce small scale amounts of Benapali and Flixabi, versions of Amgen’s Enbrel (etanercept) and J&J’s Remicade (infliximab) both approved across numerous…
Mustang to make ‘bubble boy’ candidate from newly opened cell therapy plant
A gene therapy for children with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (X-SCID) will be made at Mustang Bio’s facility in Massachusetts, which opened in June. Biotech firm Mustang Bio has partnered with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to develop a lentiviral gene therapy for the rare disease, commonly known as bubble boy disease, caused by a lack of immune cells necessary to fight off viruses, bacteria and fungi. As the therapy progresses through early-phase clinical trials, Mustang will begin to manufacture…