ePT by PharmTech logo
News
Company Notes
PharmTech,
the magazine
People Notes
Equipment & Processing Report
   
 

About Us

Subscribe to Pharmaceutical Technology

Whitepaper Library

Podcasts

Webcast: Impact of the New USP <231> Heavy Metals Chapter
On-Demand

Sponsored By SGS

Webcast: The Impact of Harmonizing Microbial Testing
On-Demand

Sponsored By Celsis

Podcast: Shared Supplier Audits and Supply-Chain Security: A Look at Rx-360
On-Demand


Events

Events

GPhA/FDA Fall Technical Conference
Oct. 27–29
Rockville, MD

IVT Presents:
15th Annual Validation Week

Oct. 28–30
Philadelphia, PA

World Conference on Regenerative Medicine
Oct. 20–23
Bethesda, MD

ISPE Facility of the Year: Innovation Showcase
Nov. 2–3
Ulm, Germany

Selecting and Managing CROs
Nov. 3–4
Berlin, Germany

The Annual DCAT/ISM Sourcing Summit 2009
Nov. 4–5
New Brunswick, NJ

2009 AAPS Annual Meeting and Exposition
Nov. 8–12
Los Angeles, CA

2009 ISPE Annual Meeting
Nov. 8–11
San Diego, CA

More events


 

 

FindPharma Search
October 22, 2009 PharmTech.com

News

FDA Issues New Guidance on Drug Labeling and Pharmacologic Class
The US Food and Drug Administration issued a guidance for industry and review staff titled, Labeling for Human Prescription Drug and Biological Products–Determining Established Pharmacologic Class for Use in the Highlights of Prescribing Information. Click Here to Read More

Pfizer and Wyeth Begin Operations as a Combined Company
Following the completion of its $68-billion acquisition of Wyeth, Pfizer began joint operations of the combined company last week.
Click Here to Read More

EFCG: Counterfeit Medicines More Profitable than Heroin
The European Fine Chemicals Group held a press conference last week at CPhI Worldwide and revealed some disturbing facts regarding counterfeit APIs.
Click Here to Read More


AAPS Exhibitors


PharmTech Talk blog



Advertisement:
Lancaster Laboratories Will Solve Your Raw Materials Testing Challenges

When raw materials challenges require timely, innovative solutions, Lancaster Laboratories is the trusted source to deliver desired results. With unmatched scientific expertise, capabilities and service, Lancaster Laboratories offers comprehensive raw materials testing, including USP and EP harmonization. Expect quality, 24/7 availability, specialization and on-time delivery. Customized services available. Discover why customers rank Lancaster Laboratories their #1 Lab of Choice consecutively since 1996.

Click here for your Raw Materials solutions


Company Notes
Ash Stevens (Detroit, MI), a contract drug development and CGMP manufacturer, is planning a $6-million expansion project to upgrade its active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing facility in Riverview, Michigan. The plan’s initial phase includes an isolated new reactor bay, which will house two 100-gallon glass-lined reactors and a 50-gallon hydrogenation vessel. The new reactor bay will provide redundant capacity to a similarly designed existing bay that holds three 100-gallon reactors, while providing additional plant capacity and plant-scale hydrogenation capabilities. The company expects the initial phase to be operational in January 2010.

Continental Disc Corporation (Leiden, The Netherlands) will begin to support all sales, customer service, and logistics for the United Kingdom and other European countries from its facilities in Leiden, The Netherlands, beginning Jan. 2, 2010.

Evonik Industries (Essen, Germany) will acquire Eli Lilly’s (Indianapolis, IN) Tippecanoe Laboratories manufacturing facility in Lafayette, Indiana. The site, which employs about 700 people, manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients and precursor materials for the pharmaceutical industry. The purchase price was not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year, pending customary regulatory approvals.

GeoVax Labs’ (Atlanta, GA) HIV/AIDS vaccine will be the first clinical candidate that is formulated and filled under Formatech’s (Andover, MA) Fillanthropy Program, according to a company press release. Formatech’s Fillanthropy Program states that the company will donate the services required to aseptically fill and finish one lot of drug product for selected therapeutic candidates that are entering human clinical trials. The production run is scheduled to be completed in January 2010.

Lonza Group (Basel) withdrew its bid to acquire all of the outstanding restricted voting shares of Patheon (Research Triangle Park, NC) at a price of $3.55 per restricted voting share. Lonza said that “a combination of factors including value considerations, the rejection of the Lonza proposal by the majority shareholder of Patheon, and the availability to Lonza of possible alternatives makes the proposed acquisition unattractive to Lonza at this time,” in a company press release.

In a separate announcement, Lonza said it completed the acquisition of the preclinical cell and molecular biology assets of Simbiosys Biowares India (Bangalore, India). Simbiosys Biowares, a subsidiary of Simbiosys Biowares (Dallas, TX), is a biology outsourcing company focused on primary cell isolation and tissue sourcing and in performing preclinical services to mid-size pharmaceutical companies.

Advertisement:
Surety Protects ELN Content Integrity, Ensures Authenticity

As a pharmaceutical or biotechnology organization, your formulas, treatments and discoveries are the “lifeblood” of your business. But if you aren't protecting the integrity of your scientific content, you risk losing ownership, revenue and consequently your business if you can't prove time-of-creation and authenticity. Learn how you can implement simple, cost-effective, and transparent controls to protect your intellectual property data – get the free whitepaper now

Pall (Port Washington, NY), a filtration, separation, and purification company, was named one of the greenest companies in America by Newsweek magazine. Pall was ranked second in the industrial goods sector and 47th among America's 500 largest companies. The publication’s first-ever list of "Green Companies" appeared in the Sept. 28, 2009 issue.

SAFC Pharma (St. Louis, MO), a member of the Sigma-Aldrich Group, announced that its Pharmorphix Solid State Research Laboratories in Cambridge, UK, installed a new single crystal X-ray diffraction system. The Oxford Diffraction SuperNova system, which can determine the crystal structures from a variety of crystal samples, is the first industrial installation of this instrumentation, according to a company press release.

SurModics (Eden Prairie, MN), a provider of drug-delivery and surface-modification technologies, signed a license and development agreement allowing Roche (Basel) and Genentech (South San Francisco, CA) to use its proprietary biodegradable microparticles drug-delivery system to develop and commercialize a sustained drug delivery formulation of Lucentis (ranibizumab injection). The agreement also provides Roche and Genentech with opportunities to develop additional compounds for the treatment of ophthalmic diseases. Under the terms of the agreement, SurModics will receive an up-front licensing fee of $3.5 million. In addition, SurModics could receive up to approximately $200 million in fees and milestone payments, as well as undisclosed royalties on product sales.

Vetter (Ravensburg, Germany), a provider of aseptically prefilled injection systems, will open Vetter Development Service (VDS), a customer service facility located in Chicago, Illinois. Vetter will be capable of aseptically filling very small quantities of products in the new facility, and sees the new facility as a major investment in Vetter Pharma International GmbH, according to a company press release. The 25,000-ft2 facility will open at the end of 2009.

Do you have news to report on facility expansions, contracts, service agreements, mergers, acquisitions, or personnel appointments? Send press releases to ptpress@advanstar.com


Advertisement:
Enwave Optronics, Inc. is the innovative leader in affordable Raman spectroscopy solutions. Enwave offer portable Raman instruments with best performances and prices in the industry. Raman microscopes and high sensitivity Raman instruments with the best performance-to-price ratios are also available. Click here to read more.


Regulatory Roundup

The US Food and Drug Administration and Federal Trade Commission issued a joint Warning Letter on Oct. 19, 2009, to a website offering fraudulent supplements that claim to help prevent the spread of the swine-flu virus, according to an FDA release. The website was asked to cease the fraudulent marketing and advise the agencies of its plan to discontinue fraudulent marketing within 48 hours of receiving the letter. FDA and FTC also asked consumers to be cautious of “promotions or Internet sites offering products for sale that claim to diagnose, prevent, mitigate, treat or cure the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus.”

People Notes

Aileron Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA), a biotechnology company, appointed Steven Kafka as the company's first chief financial officer and vice-president of finance and operations. Kafka will report to CEO Joseph A. Yanchik III.

Hospira (Lake Forest, IL), a specialty pharmaceutical company, named Daphne E. Jones senior vice-president and chief information officer, effective Nov. 9, 2009. Jones will have overall responsibility for Hospira's information technology and systems, and will report directly to Chris Begley, chairman and CEO.

Specialty pharmaceutical company NovaDel Pharma (Flemington, NJ) elected Mark Baric, Thomas Bonney, Steven Ratoff, and Charles Nemeroff directors of the company at its 2009 annual meeting of stockholders. NovaDel Pharma develops oral spray formulations for a range of marketed drugs.

Peregrine Pharmaceuticals (Tustin, CA) appointed Robert Garnick head of regulatory affairs. Garnick was formerly the senior vice-president of regulatory, quality, and compliance at Genentech (South San Francisco, CA). Garnick will be responsible for overseeing Peregrine's interactions with FDA and regulatory agencies around the world.

Shrink Nanotechnologies (Carlsbad, CA), a nanotechnology company, announced that Bruce R. Conklin, a senior investigator at the Gladstone Institute and professor of medical genetics and cellular and molecular pharmacology at the University of California San Francisco, and Kara McCloskey, professor at the school of engineering, University of California, Merced, have joined its scientific advisory board. Shrink is developing biological research and development tools that employ its technology and microfabrication capabilities designed to offer new techniques for cell biology, molecular biology, immunodiagnostics, and stem-cell research.

Sundia MediTech (Shanghai, China) a pharmaceutical research and development outsourcing service company, appointed Charles D. Maher senior vice-president of sales and marketing. Maher was previously executive vice-president of global sales and marketing at Azopharma Product Development Group (Hollywood, FL). Maher will report directly to Xiaochuan Wang, chairman and CEO of Sundia.

PharmTech, the magazine
Current Issue cover
Special Report: The Emerging Markets of the East
Angie Drakulich

The countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States are closing in on global pharmaceutical competition.

Click Here to Read More

Coming Soon: A peer-reviewed article discusses moisture-activated dry granulation in the November 2009 issue of Pharmaceutical Technology.


 
Reducing Supercooling during the Lyophilization of Biologicals
Erik Greb

The manufacturing process, which influences a drug’s safety and efficacy, is particularly critical for drugs administered through injection, and personnel must closely supervise lyophilization to ensure product quality.

Click Here to Read More

 
 

PharmTech Poll

FDA's 2nd
Transparency Meeting

FDA's Transparency Task Force will hold its second public meeting on Nov 3. Is FDA's initiative to better inform the public of what it does the right step for the agency?

Vote here
View the poll archive.


On Our Blog PharmTech Talk

>>Recent Posts

Biotech
Equality for Boys?

CPhI Worldwide Conference Coverage
ISP Launches Drug-Solubility Initiative at CPhI

Regulation
Understanding QbD Requires Basic Fundamentals

>>Go to the Blog Homepage


| Subscribe | Send Feedback | Advertise With Us | Visit PharmTech.com |

You are subscribed to Pharm Tech Enews. To unsubscribe, click here

To ensure delivery to your Inbox, please add us to your address book. If you need help doing this, click here.

Advanstar Communications provides certain customer contact data (such as customers' names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses) to third parties who wish to promote relevant products, services and other opportunities which may be of interest to you. If you do not want Advanstar Communications to make your contact information available to third parties for marketing purposes, simply call (toll free) 1-866-529-2922 at any time, or fax us at 1-218-740-6417. Outside the U.S., please phone 1-218-740-6395. Contact us by mail at Advanstar Communications Inc., 131 West First St., Duluth, MN 55802-2065, USA.

Visit PharmTech.com Visit PharmTech.com About Us Subscribe Today! Start your RSS subscription today! Manufacturing Outsourcing Formulation Ingredients Testing Drug Delivery IT Packaging Regulation Visit PharmTech.com