Pharmaceutical Processing

The third vaccine to win emergency use authorization in the U.S. could reappear after a 10-day pause, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top disease expert. FDA and CDC had recommended temporarily suspending the use of the Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) vaccine after six women developed serious blood clots within weeks of vaccination. Fauci…

The European Union has decided to exercise an option to purchase additional doses of the Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX).  The two companies will deliver 600 million doses of the vaccine to the EU in 2021.  The Continent’s mass-vaccination efforts have sputtered for much of early 2021, given supply constraints related…

BioDelivery Sciences (NSDQ:BDSI) is a specialty pharmaceutical company that last year achieved a 617% growth rate, as shown in Deloitte’s 2020 Technology Fast 500 Rankings. The company is focused on meeting unmet needs of patients with chronic conditions. We interviewed Scott Plesha, the company’s president and chief commercial officer, to learn more about the company. In…

Catalent announced today that it completed the expansion of two new suites at its biologics manufacturing facility in Madison, Wis. Somserset, N.J.-based Catalent also commenced work on customer programs in addition to completing the expansion of the biologics drug substance development and manufacturing facility, according to a news release. The company now has five manufacturing…

Recent research from reputation data specialist RepTrak (Boston) indicates that the pharma industry had the largest year-over-year reputational improvement of any sector, according to its roundup of top 100 corporations. The sector saw significant gains in consumers’ perception of its citizenship and governance.  Now ranked eighth overall, the pharma industry came in just ahead of…

Johnson & Johnson will cut COVID-19 vaccine shipments by 86% in the coming week, according to CDC projections. The week of April 5, the company shipped nearly 5 million doses. Next week, that figure could fall to approximately 700,000.  The company anticipates that it can eventually deliver up to 8 million doses weekly, assuming FDA authorizes…

A combination of digital tools, improved production equipment, and advanced instrumentation helped COVID-19 vaccines to roll out in record time. Ben Arriola and Zach Blum, Emerson There is little doubt that researchers will study the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects from countless angles in the decades to come. Few events in modern times have had…

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) announced that it assumed full responsibility for the production of its COVID-19 vaccine at the Emergent BioSolutions Bayview (Baltimore) facility. The company’s announcement comes days after news broke that a factory error made at that facility resulted in 15 million discarded COVID-19 vaccines. New Brunswick, N.J.–based J&J’s single-dose vaccine was authorized…

Pfizer and BioNTech announced today that European authorities approved storage of their COVID-19 vaccine at a new temperature. Based on data showing stability in standard pharmaceutical freezers, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved storage of the vaccine at -25°C to -15°C for a total of two weeks. The FDA’s requirements include two-week storage at the…

After the number of COVID-19 infections began to incline steeply, India has decided to retain most of the vaccines produced in the country. The country has also announced plans to lower the eligibility requirements to all citizens 45 or older starting April 1. The Serum Institute of India is one of the world’s biggest vaccine…