BUSINESS INSIGHTS
MilliporeSigma | November 16, 2022
MilliporeSigma, the U.S. and Canada Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a leading science and technology company, announced that its Life Science business sector is investing more than $ 286 million in its biosafety testing capacity at the company's site in Rockville, Maryland, USA. This will significantly increase the company's ability to conduct biosafety testing and analytical development services. Biosafety testing and analytical development are critical and fundamental requirements of the drug development and commercialization process to ensure the safety of medicines. Global demand for these services is growing at a double-digit rate.
"MilliporeSigma is harnessing its broad portfolio of modern technologies and enabling services to help ensure the safety of the world's medicines. These significant investments in Rockville and other sites across our global network will help us meet growing demand for the robust testing studies that biologics manufacturers depend upon to comply with stringent regulatory guidelines. This is a prime example of our focus on sustainable growth in areas with strong underlying upwards dynamics."
Belén Garijo, Chair of the Executive Board and CEO of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany
"This is the largest investment in contract testing in Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany's history. Our Rockville campus has a long track record of testing for both traditional and novel therapies. We have been driving innovation in biosafety testing for 75 years and this expansion enables our Life Science business sector to lead in shaping the future of testing," said Matthias Heinzel, Member of the Executive Board of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and CEO Life Science. "We thank the State of Maryland and Montgomery County, Maryland, for their collaboration in making this new campus a reality for our employees and clients. Together, we are impacting life and health with science."
The BioReliance® contract testing portfolio from MilliporeSigma provides best-in-class biosafety testing and analytical development methods for both traditional and novel therapies. The new state-of-the-art, 250,000-square-foot facility at MilliporeSigma's Rockville site will house biosafety testing, analytical development, viral clearance suites, and cell bank manufacturing services. Currently, about 600 employees work at the site. Over the next four years, the expansion will create more than 500 new jobs.
With more than 30 years of drug development, material science and process technology expertise, Millipore® CTDMO Services offerings span pre-clinical development to commercial manufacturing, including testing, across multiple modalities including mAbs, highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredients, antibody-drug conjugates, viral vector therapies, mRNA, and lipid nanoparticle formulation.
Contract testing and the newly formed Millipore® CTDMO Services are part of the Life Science Services business unit, which together with the Process Solutions business is one of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany's "Big 3" growth drivers. The company aims to increase its Group sales to approximately € 25 billion by 2025.
Recently, the company's Life Science business sector announced investments in Martillac and Molsheim, France; Shanghai, China; Sheboygan and Verona, Wisconsin, USA; Cork, Ireland; Wuxi, China; Carlsbad, California, USA; Jaffrey, New Hampshire and Danvers, Massachusetts, USA; Buchs, Switzerland; and Darmstadt, Germany. These expansions are part of an ambitious, multi-year program. It aims to increase the capacity and capabilities of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany's Life Science business sector to support the growing global demand for lifesaving medications and to make significant contributions to public health.
About the Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany
The Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, which operates as MilliporeSigma in the U.S. and Canada, has more than 26,000 employees and more than 55 manufacturing and testing sites worldwide, with a portfolio of more than 300,000 products focused on scientific discovery, biomanufacturing and testing services. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a leading science and technology company, operates across healthcare, life science and electronics.
Around 60,000 employees work to make a positive difference to millions of people's lives every day by creating more joyful and sustainable ways to live. From advancing gene-editing technologies and discovering unique ways to treat the most challenging diseases to enabling the intelligence of devices – the company is everywhere. In 2021, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany generated sales of € 19.7 billion in 66 countries.
The company holds the global rights to the name and trademark "Merck" internationally. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the business sectors of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany operate as EMD Serono in healthcare, MilliporeSigma in life science, and EMD Electronics. Since its founding in 1668, scientific exploration and responsible entrepreneurship have been key to the company's technological and scientific advances. To this day, the founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed company.
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BUSINESS INSIGHTS, PHARMA TECH
Cambrex | January 24, 2023
Cambrex, a renowned global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) offering drug substance, product, and analytical services throughout the drug lifecycle, recently announced the completion of its acquisition of Snapdragon Chemistry, a US-based provider of chemical process development services to a diverse range of emerging and established biopharma customers.
Snapdragon Chemistry specializes in the development of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) batch and continuous flow processes, employing cutting-edge automated technology and proprietary equipment to address complicated process and analytical development challenges. With its headquarters for R&D and manufacturing in Waltham, Massachusetts, Snapdragon's 70+ employees, including 31 Ph.D. scientists, have strong ties to the local scientific community.
Cambrex's CEO Tom Loewald commented, "Today, we welcome our new colleagues from Snapdragon to Cambrex." He added, "With Snapdragon's depth of scientific expertise in API process development, I'm certain our customers will see the benefits of this combination and be delighted to work with Snapdragon's team."
(Source – PR Newswire)
Cambrex's portfolio of specialized pharmaceutical development and manufacturing solutions continues to grow, with Snapdragon reinforcing its experience in continuous flow production in addition to augmenting the recent investments in continuous flow process development capabilities at its North Carolina facility in High Point.
Snapdragon's CEO Matt Bio said, "I am extremely proud of what our team at Snapdragon has built over the years." He further added, "With Cambrex, we have found an ideal home for our customers and employees, and I look forward to continued success as part of Cambrex."
(Source – PR Newswire)
About Cambrex
Founded in 1981, Cambrex is a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) that offers drug substances, products, and analytical services throughout the drug lifecycle. It provides a variety of specialized medicinal substance technologies and capabilities, such as controlled substances, biocatalysis, continuous flow, material characterization, solid-state science, stability storage and testing, and potent APIs. Cambrex is a trusted partner in the branded and generic markets for the development and manufacturing of API and finished dosage forms. With over 40 years of experience, it has a growing workforce of over 2,300 specialists serving global clients from North America and Europe.
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BUSINESS INSIGHTS, PHARMACY MARKET
Cellworks Group | January 13, 2023
Cellworks Group Inc., a pioneer in personalized therapy biosimulation, announced the introduction of its precision drug development business units.
These units will use predictive biosimulation to shorten drug development time-to-market and revive previously researched but disapproved pharmaceutical assets.
The two new business units will use Cellworks' computational biology model (CBM) and biosimulation platform to predict responses to pharmaceutical interventions in silico, streamlining the clinical trial by identifying suitable patients more quickly, thereby reducing the time and cost of developing successful pharmaceutical agents.
Cellworks precision drug development: Pre-clinical stage
Companion molecule development: The Cellworks platform can augment a drug's usability by finding companion molecules that improve performance when combined with the investigational agent.
Biomarker development: Cellworks utilizes cell lines and historical patient data to uncover novel biomarkers for investigational agents. This may increase drug success rates by proactively identifying individuals who will respond to an agent.
Indication expansion: By utilizing the Cellworks patient database of 100,000+ omics patient profiles and 1,800 oncology cell lines to examine the agent's effectiveness in different indications, the Cellworks platform can identify additional indications where an experimental treatment may be successful.
Cellworks precision drug development: Clinical stage
Drug revival and repurposing: The platform seeks to anticipate whether certain drugs cause a response, which may be used to identify whether shelved assets can be resurrected via suitable patient selection or the discovery of non-obvious reasons.
Clinical trial biosimulation: Through biosimulation clinical trials, the Cellworks platform may anticipate humans' clinical response to pharmaceutical agents in weeks, yielding critical insight years ahead of a traditional clinical practice.
Cellworks Platform and Computational Biology Model (CBM)
The Cellworks platform biosimulates the impact of specific pharmacological molecules on a given patient or class of patients using the patient's genetic profile. To generate a customized or cohort-specific disease model, multi-omic data from a cohort or patient is fed into the Cellworks computational biology model (CBM).
About Cellworks Group
Cellworks is one of the leaders in precision medicine. The organization assists physicians and payers in navigating the most efficacious, cost-effective therapies for patients. Its primary therapeutic areas are oncology, immunology, dermatology, and infectious diseases. Its one-of-a-kind biosimulation platform is a unified representation of biological information gathered from disparate databases and used to find cures. The company has the world's strongest trans-disciplinary team of molecular biologists, cellular pathway modelers, and internet software technologists working towards a common goal, i.e., taking on significant diseases to improve patients' lives.
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