BUSINESS INSIGHTS, PHARMACY MARKET
PCI Pharma Services | March 20, 2023
PCI Pharma Services (PCI), a leading global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), announced plans for a new 200,000-square-foot facility in Rockford, Illinois to enhance the organization’s capacity in injectable drug-device combination product assembly of both biologics and small molecules. Building on PCI’s leadership in this space with its Philadelphia Biotech Center of Excellence, the new facility is the second expansion building off the success in Philadelphia and will house over 20 dedicated customer suites with multiformat machines for the assembly and packaging of vials, pre-filled syringes, auto-injectors, and pen-cartridge combinations. This machinery can be used for the glucagon-like peptide 1 agonists (GLP-1) class of drugs prescribed to treat diabetes and obesity, as well as those needed for oncology treatment and autoimmune diseases.
PCI’s Rockford location will have extensive product testing capability, state-of-the art top-load cartoning technology, and industry leading injector and pen assembly equipment. Additional capabilities include on-site cold storage, high-speed vial labeling, assembly, and packaging of multiformat autoinjectors, serialization, testing, and drug product release.
“We see the tremendous impact that we can make with patients with this investment,” said Salim Haffar, CEO of PCI Pharma Services. “The need for injectable drug-delivery device combination product capacity and expertise is critical, and we are responding with a world-class facility to address the future demands of our global clients so they can focus on developing therapies to improve the lives of patients with serious chronic conditions.”
The $50 million investment in Rockford will amplify PCI’s specialty drug leadership presence in the Midwest, adding to clinical and commercial sterile fill-finish capabilities in Madison, Wisconsin. The new facility will provide a second hub within the U.S., expanding from PCI’s foundation in the Northeast, with Bedford, New Hampshire’s campus growth in aseptic processing. PCI also has sterile fill-finish capabilities at its Leon, Spain; San Diego, California; and Melbourne, Australia locations. The expansion in Rockford is expected to bring 250 jobs to the region in the next two years, with continued growth over three to five years. The site is expected to be fully operational in summer 2024.
“With this new facility, we will be able to serve all clients focused on injectable drug products including biologics with the equipment and capacity to make life-changing medicines,” said Gil Valadez, Senior Vice President, Commercial Packaging Technology, PCI Pharma Services. “We want to help our clients by managing the technical aspects of drug manufacturing, engineering, and delivery, so they can focus on what’s most important: delivering quality products to meet patient needs. That's what PCI is ultimately all about.”
About the Rockford, IL Facility
Rockford is the largest of PCI’s 30 locations across the U.S., European, and Asia Pacific regions, providing industry-leading services for the clinical and commercial packaging of a diverse portfolio of products and specialized delivery forms destined to reach more than 100 countries across the world. The gated secured facility is classified by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as Schedule 3. It features temperature and humidity control, an approved Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) and offers TF1 and Uhlmann blistering, vibratory and slat filler bottling, powder filling, cartoning, carding, kitting and serialization capabilities. Warehouse storage includes freezer storage -15°C to -30°C and cold storage 2°C to 8°C.
About PCI Pharma Services
PCI is a leading global CDMO, providing clients with integrated end-to-end drug development, manufacturing and packaging capabilities that increase their products’ speed to market and opportunities for commercial success. PCI brings the proven experience that comes with more than 50 successful product launches each year and over five decades in the healthcare services business. We currently have 30 sites across seven countries (Australia, Canada, U.S., Ireland, Wales, Germany and Spain) and over 5,000 employees that work to bring life-changing therapies to patients. Leading technology and continued investment enable us to address global drug development needs throughout the entire product life cycle – from manufacturing capabilities through the clinical trial supply chain and into commercialization. Our clients view us as an extension of their business and a collaborative partner with the shared goal of improving patients’ lives.
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PHARMA TECH
Douglas Pharmaceuticals | January 27, 2023
A clinical advisory board has been established to support Douglas Pharmaceuticals' lead program R-107, an oral extended-release dose of racemic ketamine being developed as an adjunctive or stand-alone therapy for treatment-resistant depression.
Douglas Pharmaceuticals is a New Zealand-based pharmaceutical company specializing in the development of specialty generic and repurposed medications (TRD).
Peter Surman, Chief Scientific Officer expressed, "We are very excited to bring together a group of world-class experts in the field of psychiatry, to help guide our late-stage development of R-107." "We believe their deep knowledge in the field, insights and contributions will be instrumental in charting an efficient course through pivotal clinical studies in TRD," he added.
(Source – Cision PR Newswire)
Some of the members of the clinical advisory board are as follows:
• Prof. Paul Glue [MB, ChB (Otago), MD (Bristol), FRCPsych]
• Prof. Alan F. Schatzberg, [MD] • Prof. Sanjay J. Mathew [MD]
• Prof. Allan Young [MB, ChB, MPhil, Ph.D., FRCP (Edin.), FRCPC, FRCPsych]
• Prof. Wiesław J. Cubała, [MD, PhD]
• Prof. Colleen Loo [MBBS (Hons), FRANZCP, MD]
About Douglas Pharmaceuticals
New Zealand's largest private pharmaceutical and healthcare firm, Douglas Pharmaceuticals, employs over 700 people and exports to over 40 countries. The company provides creative, competitive, and high-quality healthcare solutions to 'improve lives'. It designs, manufactures, and distributes unique and generic products, preferring those with significant intellectual property and technological complexity in high-unmet need sectors. The company's presence in international markets continues to grow, exposing New Zealand to the world. It is dedicated to improving people's health all around the globe. Some of the products that the company works with cutting-edge partners to develop, make, market, and distribute are pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, automated compliance systems, and consumer healthcare items.
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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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