Manufacturing

Merck Ends Partnership With Dynavax; PhRMA Elects Officers; And More.

A report from Thomson Reuters claims the number of patent challenges in the US almost doubled between 2008 and 2009.

Abbott Agrees to Acquire Facet Biotech; FDA Issues Black-Box Warning For Plavix; and More.

AstraZeneca signed a license and supply agreement with the drug company and manufacturer Torrent Pharmaceuticals.

Three companies joined the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's 21st Century Biodefense initiative to establish a flexible vaccine development and production facility.

PharmTech's monthly newsletter, Equipment and Processing Report, reviews the Editor's Picks for the March 2010 edition from Munters and NETZSCH.

Recent developments demonstrate the importance of biologicals, which usually are delivered through injections, for the drug industry's future. To find out about the process of manufacturing prefilled syringes, and to learn about innovations in filling lines, Equipment and Processing Report talked to Thomas Otto, managing director of Vetter.

Continuous manufacturing could bring the pharmaceutical industry advantages such as improved product quality, easy scale-up, flexibility, and short cycle times. But how can a company switch from batch to continuous manufacturing?

Lyophiliser sterilisation is a common demand of the pharmaceutical industry.

There are a variety of vaccine types, each varying in safety and efficacy, and each possessing its own formulation challenges. To overcome potential instabilities when developing vaccines, one formulation strategy is to produce a dried product.

Freeze dryer internal surfaces become contaminated, post cycle, by the ablation of API and excipient from the freeze?drying cake.

Lyophilization is an expensive process that demands high investments in technology, but for many products, pharmaceutical freeze drying is currently the only method to ensure durability.

Technological advances and regulatory documents, such as Annex 1 of the EU Guideline for Good Manufacturing Practice, have encouraged the pharmaceutical industry to install various new technologies into their production lines.

When freeze drying biological materials, the major concern is achieving product consistency both within a batch and between batches.

Despite numerous benefits, computer modelling has mainly remained in the domain of academic research.

The most important consideration when choosing a freeze dryer is to ensure the system is fit for both today's applications and future needs.

The World Health Organization released new guidelines this week for the treatment of malaria and the first-ever guidelines on procuring safe and efficacious antimalarial drugs.

Exelixis And XenoPort Announce Job Cuts; GSK Dedicates India Facility; And More.

The US Food and Drug Administration recently published guidance for the characterization and qualification of cell substrates, viral seeds, and other biological materials used to manufacture viral vaccines for human use.

A UK consortium completed pilot runs of a pharmaceutical-safety program that uses electronic tracking and authentication to ensure the safety of drugs in the supply chain.

The US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency are implementing a streamlined process to help regulators better identify and share information regarding orphan-drug and biologic products.

Merck KGaA has agreed to acquire Millipore for EUR 5.3 billion ($7.2 billion).

Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health unveiled plans to establish a Joint Leadership Council to address important public-health issues.

Astellas Pharma Makes Bid for OSI Pharmaceuticals; Ringo Retiring From Pfizer; And More.

Top pharmaceutical and biotech companies should expect a major slowdown in sales growth between 2008 and 2014, according to business analysts Datamonitor.

Strategic rather than tactical considerations are driving biopharmaceutical outsourcing.

Following its $68-billion acquisition of Wyeth, Pfizer is integrating its manufacturing and outsourcing activities (Podcast).

Editors' Picks of Pharmaceutical Science & Technology Innovations

CMOs' business model has all of the flaws of the captive model it is meant to replace.

Could President Obama's tax reform, which is targeted at reducing outsourcing, endanger India's contract-services industry?