Hovione has signed an agreement with Dragonfly Technologies to gain access to its micellar technology for chemistry-in-water processes, developed by Professor Bruce Lipshutz of the University of California, Santa Barbara. The company said that it will develop the technology to become an integral part of its API manufacturing technology offering.
During its full-year results presentation, CDMO and API supplier EuroAPI announced the launch of Focus-2027, a comprehensive project that will seek to unlock profitable growth and increase returns. Key means of achieving include:
* Streamlining the value-added API portfolio by discontinuing 13 with low or negative margins and focusing on highly differentiated, profitable products, such as vitamin B12, prostaglandins, peptides and oligonucleotides
* Having a focused CDMO offer “leveraging our recognised capabilities and technology platforms” *
Michael Levis of Siegfried overviews the possibilities of a key pharmaceutical technology
The pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries constantly seek innovative methods to enhance product stability, solubility, bioavailability and ease of use. Within this realm, CDMOs serve as invaluable partners in the development and production of high-quality drug products. Among the array of cutting-edge technologies that have transformed the CDMO industry, spray drying has emerged as a versatile and indispensable tool.
As part of its ‘Pivot to Growth’ strategy, generics giant Teva has announced that it intends to divest its API business, including its R&D, manufacturing and commercial activities, within 1H 2025. This is subject to finding a buyer at the right price, the company stressed.
The business sells APIs to third parties, plus certain contract manufacturing services and an out-licensing platform offering a portfolio of products to other pharmaceutical companies through its Medis affiliate. In Q4 2023, API sales were $153 million, 9% down on Q2 2022.
Italian CDMO Olon Group has announces the ongoing construction of a high potency API (HPAPI) suite at the site in Concord, Ohio, which hosts its centre of excellence for early development of APIs. This adds to the commercial-scale capabilities of sites at Segrate and Rodano, near Milan, Italy, where Olon has invested about €40 million in the last few years.
CDMO EuroAPI has initiated what it calls “a pivotal collaboration” with SpiroChem, a Basel-based CRO that is specialised in chemical process R&D, or route scouting. They will seek to offer consolidated CRO-CDMO services, “ensuring that industrialisation constraints for small molecules are integrated from the initial step of drug design, thereby speeding up the process”.
In response to growing demand worldwide, WuXi AppTec has commissioned two new peptide plants, one each at its Changzhou and Taixing sites in China. Both use digital operation systems with automated solvent delivery, in order to optimise production consistency, minimise human errors and reduce production cycle time.
This investment will increase the company’s total solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) reactor volume to 32,000 litres. It also marks the official launch of Taixing as WuXi AppTec’s fifth API production sites.
