Expected revenue growth from emerging biotech has gone from double-digits to a decline says Agilent Technologies, but mid-to-large pharma remains robust. Instrument and consumable vendor Agilent pulled in $1.72 billion, up 9.5% year-on-year, for its fiscal year 2023 Q2 results. Specifically, revenue for pharma and biopharma grew 11% in Q2 and when Agilent’s Nucleic Acid Solutions Division (NASD) was included it grew 16%. What made these figure more impressive is the “increasingly challenging market environment,” management explained on the call,…

Eppendorf has launched the first centrifuge on the market to be deemed sustainable under the My Green Lab ACT label. We ask the firm what this means, and how it plays into wider sustainability goals. The concept of sustainability has moved beyond a tick-box exercise within the bioprocess industry. Last year, vendors took note as pharma giant GSK launched a sustainability program calling on its network of over 160 suppliers to take action on sustainability commitments and make improvements on emissions, energy, heat,…

Synthetic biology could be used to develop a new paradigm in controlling cellular function and specificity, according to a bioprocess engineer at BPI Europe.   Speaking at the event in Amsterdam, The Netherlands this week, David James, professor of bioprocess engineering at the University of Sheffield, told delegates the manufacturability of biotherapeutics can be enhanced by synthetic biology through the design of specific genetic systems. Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are a workhorse in biomanufacturing, used to produce large quantities of…

Bringing the Pall portfolio under the Cytiva brand will bring customers simpler and greater access to bioprocess technologies and services, claims Danaher. Danaher Corporation jumped into the pure-play bioprocess space in 2015 buying the life sciences business of Pall Corporation for $13.8 billion. Five years later, the firm doubled down on the sector paying $21 billion for Cytiva (then known as GE Healthcare Life Sciences). While the two have been operating as separate brands, going forward both will fall under…

With ‘demand normalization’ hitting the topline, Sartorius lays out ambitions in the cell and gene therapy materials sector further propelled through the planned acquisition of Polyplus. Life sciences service firm Sartorius presented sales of €695 million ($761 million) in its Bioprocess Solutions business for the first quarter 2023, a 14.7% drop on the same period last year. Orders, meanwhile, fell 35% to €575.7 million compared to Q1 2022. Management explained the decline as a continuation of demand normalization following the…

Fujifilm Irvine Scientific has expanded its growth media business with products aimed at upping productivity of Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells in both perfusion and fed-batch bioprocesses. The latest expansion in Fujifilm Irvine Scientific’s cell culture media sees the firm add BalanCD CHO Perfusion and BalanCD CHO DG44, designed to maximize growth, viability, and productivity of Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell lines. “All media in the BalanCD CHO portfolio are chemically defined and optimized with the nutrients and components needed…

The Athens, Georgia facility will create 1,700 jobs and more than double Meissner’s US filtration and single-use product manufacturing footprint, the firm says. Meissner Corporation is investing nearly $250 million into the new facility in Winterville, Athens-Clarke County, the company announced this week. Once complete, the facility will boast cleanroom facilities, laboratories, research and development, and office spaces, and will substantially grow the firm’s current US footprint for single-use systems, filtration products, and aseptic filling systems used in the biomanufacturing…

Experts are calling on industry to respond to proposed rules restricting perfluoropolymers – commonly considered ‘forever chemicals’ – which are used in virtually all biomanufacturing processes. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is looking to implement a series of restrictions on the manufacture, placing on the market, and use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Multiple other jurisdictions are also proposing similar restrictions. “Virtually all bioprocesses for biotherapeutics and vaccine manufacturing depend somewhere in the process on these materials, which include…

The acquisition will bring Sartorius a range of transfection reagents and plasmids and, at €2.4 ($2.6) billion, is the largest bolt-on for the bioprocess vendor. The deal announced Friday will see Sartorius subsidiary Sartorius Stedim Biotech (SSB) buy France-based Polyplus, adding a range of components used in the production of viral vectors and around 270 staff members. René Fáber, who recently tookover as CEO of SSB from Joachim Kreuzburg, described Polyplus’ offerings as “highly complementary to our portfolio, in particular…

Despite recent expansions at its single-use technology (SUT) production facilities in Utah, Thermo Fisher is preparing to lay-off staff due to “macro-economic conditions.” Bioprocess vendor Thermo Fisher has seen a string of investments across its global production network. In Utah, specifically, the firm expanded capacity at a BioProcess Container (BPC) facility in Logan in late 2020, and – just last year – opened a 55,000 square-foot single-use technology (SUT) facility in Ogden. While the latter expansion saw Thermo Fisher hire…