Among the numerous logistical challenges to providing COVID-19 vaccines around the globe, temperature is receiving little attention. Relatively few logistics or healthcare organizations have freezers capable of cooling down to –80° C (–112° F). But vaccines using gene-based technology known as messenger RNA (mRNA) require such ultralow temperatures. Against that backdrop, Stirling Ultracold has announced…
Thermo Fisher Scientific continues growth trajectory
Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO), the maker of scientific instruments, reagents and consumables, is having a banner year. The Waltham, Mass.-based company’s stock has hit an all-time high of $481.99. That amounts to a 48% increase since the beginning of the year. Thermo Fisher raked in $2 billion in COVID-19 revenue from July to September, driving a…
Aphena Pharma announces $21M expansion in Tennessee
Aphena Pharma Solutions recently announced that it is spending $21 million to expand its Solid Dose Division in Cookeville, Tenn Aphena Pharma has purchased a 500,000 ft2 property, purpose-built for FDA manufacturing and packaging operations. Renovations have already started to turn the site into a state-of-the-art pharmaceutical packaging and distribution facility that will also serve…
Hologic spending more than $50M to expand COVID-19 test production
Hologic (NSDQ:HOLX) is spending $50 million — including $14 million during its most recent quarter — to boost its production of COVID-19 tests. The U.S. government is providing $7.6 million to support the effort. Hologic’s business partner Stratec is also doubling the production of the Panther instruments that run Hologic assays. Get the full story on our sister site…
Moderna, Catalent partner on COVID-19 vaccine candidate manufacturing
Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) and Catalent (NYSE:CTLT) today announced a collaboration for large-scale, commercial fill-finish manufacturing of Moderna’s mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate (mRNA-1273) at Catalent’s biologics facility in Bloomington, Ind. Catalent will provide vial filling and packaging capacity, as well as additional staffing required for 24×7 manufacturing operations at the site to support production of an initial 100 million…
Legacy Pharmaceutical Packaging buys facility to expand third-party logistics
Legacy Pharmaceutical Packaging recently announced that it has bought a 215,000-square-foot open-space facility near its St. Louis area headquarters to support widescale third-party logistics and distribution services. The new facility, announced last week, nearly doubles Legacy’s total footprint to more than 500,000 square feet. The new space allows Legacy Pharmaceutical Packaging to significantly grow its…
Real estate firms tout former Bristol-Myers Squibb facility as an ‘innovation campus’
Lincoln Equities Group and H.I.G. Realty Partners announced today that they’ve acquired the 1.2 million-square-foot life sciences campus that Bristol-Myers Squibb owned outside Princeton, N.J. Brokerage firm JLL is helping the real estate outfits market the 433-acre “Princeton West Innovation Campus” in Hopewell, N.J., to life sciences companies as a secure, multipurpose research and development…
The Rapid Rise of Modular Construction—Are Standardized Facilities Next?
In recent years, the discussion for flexible facility needs became widespread. The motivations for such flexible facility needs are manifold, for example, the requirement to rapidly deploy additional manufacturing capacities or scalability without interrupting existing processes. In addition, the transformation of the treatment or patient base to more personalized medicines necessitates the need to rethink…
A Focus on West’s State-of-the-Art Waterford, Ireland Facility
West Pharmaceutical Services Inc.’s Waterford, Ireland facility is a global center of excellence for the company’s advanced manufacturing network. The facility, situated on a 44-acre campus, will produce West’s elastomeric laminate sheeting, which is used to package insulin for use in pen injectors. Additionally, it will offer high-value finishing for components, including stoppers and plungers,…
Swiss-Based Pharma Packager to Open First U.S. Manufacturing Plant in Spring
Switzerland-based Hoffmann Neopac, a global provider of packaging for a broad array of industries and applications, has earmarked two of its small-diameter Polyfoil tubes for production at its first U.S. manufacturing facility, which is scheduled to open in spring 2019. The 37,000-square-foot Wilson, NC plant will feature a high-speed tube line as part of an operation…