The U.S. Department of Defense announced today that it will dedicate $100 million authorized by the CARES Act to boost medtech and pharmaceutical manufacturing in the U.S.
Working with DOD, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) launched a request for proposals from companies seeking financing under the Defense Production Act, which prioritizes government orders amid a war or national crisis.
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[Image courtesy of Legacy Pharmaceutical Processing]
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 existing third-party logistics operations. The company has plans to divide the open-design building into dedicated departments. There will be departments for new SKU handling and artwork, a retail management team for real-time inventory monitoring and reordering, an automated oversight initiative to best ensure quality and price competitiveness via enhanced efficiencies, and a warehousing and shipping wing to finalize and even deliver finish…
The Princeton West Innovation Campus in Hopewell, N.J. [Image courtesy of Bristol Myers Squibb]
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 (R&D) and biologic/pharmaceutical manufacturing campus.
“Given the current public health crisis, we anticipate pharmaceutical and life sciences manufacturers to consider ‘reshoring’ and expanding operations in the U.S.,” Joel Bergstein, president of Lincoln Equities Group, said in a news release. “This spacious, modern BMS campus — located in the center of ‘Einstein’s Alley’ in Central New Jersey — i…
[Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash]
A new study by West Health and Gallup revealed that Americans are concerned with potential negative developments resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.Nearly 90% of the 1,016 U.S. adults surveyed between May 11, 2020, and May 22, 2020, said they are “very” (55%) or “somewhat” (33%) concerned that the pharmaceutical industry will leverage the ongoing pandemic to raise drug prices. According to a news release, Democrats (66%) were more likely to say they are concerned than independents (52%) and Republicans (49%).
Other concerns raised include, to a lesser extent, rising health insurance premiums and the general cost of care, with 79% of those surveyed saying they are very or somewhat concerned about their premiums. Additionally, 84% said they are very or somewhat concerned about the cost of care generally rising and 41% are very con…
The U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS) and Dept. of Defense (DoD) announced a joint effort to increase manufacturing for vials earmarked for COVID-19-related drugs and vaccines.
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), as part of HHS, collaborated with DoD to provide funding for U.S.-based companies Corning Inc. and SiO2 Materials Science.
Under the Trump Administration’s “Operation Warp Speed,” HHS and DoD plan to scale up domestic manufacturing capacity for the vials that could be needed for vaccines and drugs in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as well as future public health emergencies, according to a news release.
BARDA is partnering with and offering $204 million to Corning in return for manufacturing capacity expansion to produce an additional 164 million Valor glass vials each year if needed. Corning will accelerate manufacturing at its facilities in Durham, N.C., Big Flats, N.Y…
Sherlock Biosciences announced today that it will collaborate with Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) to enable large-scale manufacturing of the Sherlock CRISPR SARS-CoV-2 kit for COVID-19 detection.
Officials at Cambridge, Mass.–based Sherlock Biosciences think the company’s CRISPR-based diagnostic test, which recently received an FDA emergency use authorization, will increase testing capacity and decreasing time to result amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The company says the test provides specific and sensitive detection of SARS-CoV-2, with no need for specialized instruments to complete a test. It’s used on standard laboratory equipment, which provides a minimal footprint and helps enable a turnaround time of only about an hour.
IDT (Coralville, Iowa) is supplying several key components for the test kits, including the Cas13a enzyme on which the test is based, as well as CRISPR RNA (crRNA) and primer mix.
“Through this strategic …
Canada reportedly signed a contract to purchase 37 million syringes from Becton Dickinson (NYSE:BDX) in preparation for a potential COVID-19 vaccine.
A report in The Record revealed that Public Services & Procurement Minister Anita Anand said the country made a purchase order from the Canadian branch of BD in an effort to make sure Canada is ready for mass vaccinations if the cure for COVID-19 is discovered. There is no definitive timeline for the delivery of the syringes as of now.
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Vaxxas’ High Density Microarray Patches (HD-MAP)
Merck has exercised its option to use Vaxxas‘ High Density Microarray Patch (HD-MAP) platform as a delivery platform for a vaccine candidate, the companies announced today.
The companies did not disclose what the vaccine candidate is supposed to treat. But Merck this month announced two COVID-19 vaccine development efforts: a collaboration with IAVI and plans to acquire vaccine developer Themis Bioscience. Vaxxas (Cambridge, Mass.; Brisbane, Australia) notes that any vaccine could be delivered with its dime-sized patch.
Also today, Vaxxas announced that German manufacturing equipment maker Harro Höfliger will help Vaxxas develop a high-throughput, aseptic manufacturing line to make vaccine products based on Vaxxas’ HD-MAP technology — with a goal of eventually churning out millions of vaccine patches a week.
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Thermo Fischer Scientific announced today that it has inked a strategic partnership with biotechnology company CSL to help better meet the growing demand for biologic therapies.
Thermo Fisher will support CSL’s product portfolio through its pharma services network, including drug product development, biologics manufacturing, sterile fill-finish, packaging and clinical trials logistics. Thermo Fisher — through a long-term lease agreement with CSL — will also operate a new state-of-the-art biologics manufacturing facility in Lengnau, Switzerland.
The companies expect the construction of the new facility in Switzerland to finish in mid-2021.
“We continue to invest to meet the growing need for flexible biologics capacity, and Lengnau will significantly expand our pharma services capacity and capabilities,” said Michel Lagarde, EVP of Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Within the Lengnau site, Thermo Fisher will support the manufacturing of C…
Siemens Healthineers (ETR: SHL) said today that it has started worldwide shipments of its COVID-19 antibody test, with a goal of producing 50 million tests per month as the pandemic evolves.
The German medtech giant boasts that it has 20,000 systems worldwide to run the tests, including what it describes as the largest analyzer installed base in the U.S. Siemens Healthineers is increasing test production at its Walpole (Walpole, Mass.) and Glasgow (Newark, Del.) facilities so that it can exceed 50 million tests per month starting in June.
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[Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash]
Creating a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine is just the first step. Recent media reports suggest that making it will also be a major challenge.There are presently a number of vaccine candidates around the world that are showing promise and entering the clinical studies phase — a speed of development usually unheard of in the vaccine space. The fact that there is more than one potential vaccine showing promise is good: Experts say the world will likely need more than one approved vaccine to effectively scale up production.
But some of the promising vaccine candidates from companies such as Inovio and Moderna use cutting edge technology that has never been scaled up to produce millions of vaccine doses in factories, according to a recent report in The New York Times.
In the U.S., the White House has created a private-public partnership called Ope…
Phlow announced today that it received $354 million in U.S. government funding to manufacture essential medicines at risk of shortage, including those involved in the COVID-19 pandemic response.
Richmond, Va.–based Phlow’s manufacturing is being funded by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the office of Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The total contract awarded to Phlow by the government totals up to $812 million with a four-year base award of $354 million, plus an additional $458 million included as potential options for long-term stability, according to a news release.
“BARDA has long focused on expanding pharmaceutical manufacturing infrastructure in the United States, not only to develop and produce vaccines, but also for essential medicines, and their key ingredients used to make these drugs,” BARDA acting director, Dr. Gary Disbro…