Cambridge, Mass.–headquartered Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) will hire at least 155 new manufacturing employees for manufacturing jobs at its plant in Norwood, Mass. A $2.33 million tax incentive from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center helped bankroll the expansion. The investment will enable the company to double the size of its manufacturing site in Norwood, Mass., which became operational in 2018. With…

The West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin III (D-W. Va) sent a letter to President Joe Biden expressing his dismay regarding the FDA’s approval of Aduhelm (aducanumab), the controversial Alzheimer’s treatment from Biogen (NSDQ:BIIB). The nonprofit watchdog group Public Citizen sent a broadly similar letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra to “express its outrage” over the approval and to demand…

Leak-testing and packaging specialist Sepha (Belfast) is launching a leak tester for container closure integrity testing (CCIT) applications that can detect leaks as small as 1 µm. Known as the Multi-Q HD, the device supports the non-destructive detection of defects in pharmaceutical containers including parenteral packaging formats, which have experienced growth during the pandemic, thanks…

Now that we have passed the year’s midway mark, pharma continues to be in a unique position. While COVID-19 gave the industry an opportunity for a reputational reset in 2020, the pandemic is now a net positive for the industry, according to the recent Moody’s report, “Solid demand, lift from COVID-19 products continue to drive…

Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) announced today that the U.S. government purchased an additional 200 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine. The government’s purchase agreement with Moderna also includes the option to purchase other COVID-19 vaccine candidates to come out of the company’s pipeline. Cambridge, Mass.-based Moderna said in a news release that the purchase brings the U.S.…

In the early days of the pandemic, the subarctic storage requirements for mRNA COVID-19 vaccines sparked renewed interest in the cold chain. One potentially overlooked element of the cold chain is silica, according to the specialty chemicals company Evonik. The company states that its Aerosil fumed silica supports passively cold transport units using cool packs…

Bayer (ETR:BAYN) is pumping cash into its operations in Turku, a city on the southwest coast of Finland.  The company is at once modernizing its current operations there while also constructing a new pharmaceutical plant.   Bayer notes that the new facility will make extensive use of automation and robotics.  Bayer first built the existing Turku plant…

Another large amount of doses of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine produced at an embattled manufacturing plant reportedly have to be thrown out. The New York Times reported that the FDA told J&J that about 60 million doses of the single-dose vaccine produced at Emergent BioSolutions’ Baltimore plant can’t be used because of possible contamination.…

The pandemic has eased throughout much of the world. But demand for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments continues to be brisk, according to ratings agency Moody’s. In general, the pandemic will contribute to the pharmaceutical industry’s projected EBITDA growth rate of 4% to 6% over the coming 12 to 18 months, the firm concluded. While a…

President Joe Biden has struck a deal with Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX) to provide 500 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to roughly 100 countries over two years. Biden will announce the plan in the near future at an appearance with Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla, according to a report out yesterday in The New York Times. The…