Pharmaceutical Technology Editors

Bosch’s Xelum platform is designed for continuous production of oral solid-dosage forms.

Industry experts forecast the changes to the pharma industry for 2017.

The new DoseGuard design is compatible with standard 20-mm containers.

CPhI Worldwide announced new additions to its 2017 advisory board.

The company is expanding their April 2017 voluntary recall of phenobarbital tablets.

The agency released its report on pilot project to involve patients in the assessment of medicines.

FDA sent a warning letter to Pharmaceutic Labs, LLC for deficiencies in producing sterile drugs.

The company is the first multi-site excipient supplier to achieve accreditation across production facilities.

CPhI expert, Girish Malhotra believes drug costs could be lower if approval timeframes can be cut from 10 to three months.

The program aims to make biosimilars for the treatment of cancer more widely available in middle- and low-income countries.

Novartis entered separate license agreements with bluebird bio and Celyad for patents related to the manufacture of CAR-T cells.

EMA and the European Commission released a biosimilars information guide for health professionals during the EC’s biosimilars conference.

The agency sent a warning letter to Sal Pharma for not disclosing information about API manufacturers to customers.

Forecasts were lowered, Reuters reported, due to reduced drug approvals and increased competitive pressures.

Operated by BioOutsource, Sartorius’ subsidiary, the Glasgow, UK-based service center will offer physicochemical properties and structural attributes testing and allow clients to perform structural and functional analyses in parallel.

The pharmaceutical market in Spain is showing signs of stability according to a report by GlobalData.

New incubators, instrumentation, and staff will increase cell bioassay capabilities for EAG Laboratories.

The drug is approved to treat postmenopausal women with osteoporosis and is the first anabolic bone building agent approved in the US in approximately 15 years.

With two acquisitions, German company Fresenius Kabi enters biosimilars market and expands in US.

Avid, a wholly owned subsidiary of Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, will upgrade its Myford, California clinical and commercial manufacturing facility with multiple Mobius 2000-L single-use bioreactors from MilliporeSigma, the companies announced on May 1, 2017.

The agency has issued more than 90 warning letters over the past 10 years to companies selling fraudulent cancer treatments.

On April 28, 2017, the European Medicines Agency announced that it met with members of the heads of the National Competent Authorities (NCAs) of the member states of the European Union to discuss the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU (Brexit) and how the agency and the member states will handle the evaluation and monitoring of drugs going forward.

Truxton, Inc. is voluntarily recalling one lot of Phenobarbital Tablets, USP, 15 mg because of a labeling error on declared strength.

DSM Sinochem will expand production of 7-ADCA at its Delft facility to support growth in sustainable antibiotics.

On April 24, 2017, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) and a group of executives from several big pharma companies composed an open letter to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) regarding its relocation.

The company increased capabilities at its Pharmatek San Diego facility in response to market demand for solubility enhancement solutions.

A new study from the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that pairing the antidepressant amitriptyline with drugs designed to treat central nervous system diseases, enhances drug delivery to the brain by inhibiting the blood-brain barrier in rats. The blood-brain barrier serves as a natural, protective boundary, preventing most drugs from entering the brain. The research, performed in rats, appeared online April 27, 2017 in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism.

FDA sent a warning letter to Teva Pharmaceutical and Chemical (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd. after an inspection found the company failed to monitor and control quality.

April 24–30, 2017 is European Immunization Week in Europe, and in a statement on the European Medicines Agency (EMA) website dated April 25, 2017, Executive Director Guido Rasi stressed the importance of vaccinations in preventing and controlling disease. Rasi acknowledged that fear created from incorrect information presented by unreliable sources has created a lack of trust in vaccines. But he highlighted that Europe monitors and records information on the safety of medicines, including vaccines.

United BioPharma Inc (UBP) has selected GE Healthcare’s FlexFactory manufacturing platform for its new facility focusing on late-stage clinical and commercial production capacity of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies in Hsinchu Industrial Park, Taiwan, the company announced on April 25, 2017. With this added capacity, UBP will support local healthcare needs by bringing biopharmaceuticals to the Taiwanese and surrounding markets faster.