Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) has settled a securities lawsuit in Denmark filed in August 2019 in the district court of Glostrup. In 2019, Novo Nordisk vowed to fight the allegations contained in the lawsuit, which alleged that the company’s insulin-related profits fell at the same time prices and sales increased from February 2015 and February 2017. The…
California aims to produce inexpensive insulin
California Governor Gavin Newsom has signaled that the state would pursue manufacturing insulin to offer the hormone at a reduced cost to people with diabetes. “Insulin should not drain your bank account,” Newsom shared over Twitter. Newsom has also made contract manufactured insulin part of the proposed budget planning for the fiscal year 2022. The…
Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany acquires Exelead to bolster mRNA offerings
Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to purchase Exelead (Indianapolis), a biopharma contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO). Not to be confused with the similarly named Merck & Co., the German company will pay roughly $780 million in the acquisition. Exelead specializes in creating lipid nanoparticle and pegylated…
SiO2 Materials Science announces collaboration with the South Korean conglomerate Doosan
Privately-owned materials science firm SiO2 Materials Science has entered into an agreement with Seoul-headquartered Doosan Corp. related to the distribution of its vials, syringes and blood collection tubes in Asia and Oceania. The alliance will initially cater to the needs of pharmaceutical and diagnostics companies, with the scope of the partnership increasing over time. As…
Novo Nordisk faces Wegovy supply challenges in US
Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) announced that one of its contract manufacturers filling syringes for its Wegovy (semaglutide) pens in the U.S. market has temporarily ceased manufacturing following a report of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) problems. The company projects it will be unable to meet U.S. demand for the drug in the first half of 2022 and…
Distributed control system supports CMO’s surge in drug production during the pandemic
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) quickly expanded its manufacturing capacity at its Greenville, North Carolina plant to meet demand. The expansion involved adding a new production suite, safeguarding quality, and enabling sufficient production flexibility. During the expansion, the plant upgraded its existing Distributed Control System (DCS) to support…
A future beyond distance: How remote collaboration technologies are changing how we work
Site meetings are an integral part of business for life sciences companies — whether supplier audits, internal quality assurance inspections, process reviews, or FDA inspections. Often, these site visits involve traveling long distances to bring auditors, experts, or global teams together. Pre-COVID, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries spent enormous budgets on travel costs. Direct expenses…
Fareva, ApiJect ink 10-year licensing agreement on fill-finish production lines
Fareva and ApiJect Systems today announced a licensing agreement to fill-finish more than 500 million injectable drug doses per year. Under the agreement, Fareva intends to invest more than $56.5 million to install three blow-fill-seal production lines with support from the Government of France through the France Relance industry initiative, as well as the Investments for the…
Why global vaccine equity concerns could prolong the COVID-19 pandemic
In May, the World Health Assembly set the goal of fully vaccinating 10% of each country’s population by September 30. A number of countries hit the goal, including 15 in Africa, but more than 50 didn’t. “It’s very concerning,” said Donna Patterson, a fellow at the Wilson Center, in a recent webinar from that organization. Uneven…
Fujifilm to expand vaccine production plant in England
Fujifilm (TSE:4901) is spending big to double the size of its United Kingdom-based vaccine manufacturing facility. According to a news release, Fujifilm is spending about $532.8 million (£400 million) to expand its Teesside (north-east England) plant making the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine. The expansion includes facilities specializing in antibody treatments and viral gene therapies. Fujifilm said…