October 12, 2006 Company and People Notes: Altana Opens New Research Institute, Macroflux Corporation Creates New Drug Development Company, More

Company Notes

Konstanz, Germany (Oct. 3)—Altana Pharma (www.altanapharma.com) opened its EUR 10 million (approximately $12.5 million) Institute for Chemical and Clinical Research in Mumbai, India. The institute has 18 laboratories and the capacity to synthesize as many as 3000 pharmaceutical compounds per year.

Tokyo, Japan (Oct. 10)—Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (www.daiichipharm.co.jp) will acquire Daiichi Pharmaceutical Korea Co., Ltd. (KDP, Seoul, Korea) on Oct. 13. KDP will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Daiichi Pharmaceutical.

Rockville, MD (Oct. 4)—The US Food and Drug Administration (www.fda.gov) released Guidance for Industry Bar Code Label Requirements (www.fda.gov/cber/gdlns/barcode.htm). The new guidance is a revised version of that issued in April 2006 and answers common questions posed regarding the bar codes that are required on certain human drug and biological product labels.

London, UK (Date)—InforSense Ltd. (www.inforsense.com) has received a $10-million investment led by Fleming Family & Partners Private Equity (FF&P, London, www.ffandp.co.uk) and Imperial Innovations Group plc (London, www.imperialinnovations.co.uk). The investment will be used to expand InfoSense's global footprint and accelerate new product developments and additional application initiatives.

Mountain View, CA (Oct. 10)—Macroflux Corporation plans to create a new transdermal drug development company using $75 million the company raised in an equity financing. Macroflux was previously a group within ALZA Corporation (www.alza.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. ALZA will retain an equity stake in the venture.

Bethesda, MD (Oct. 9)—The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, www3.niaid.nih.gov) has awarded two multimillion dollar contracts to support research into an HIV vaccine. Crucell N.V. (Leiden, The Netherlands, www.crucell.com) received $16.2 million for its program focusing on the use of live viral vectors to design and develop an HIV vaccine. GenVec, Inc. (Gaithersburg, MD, www.genvec.com) was given a $52-million, five-year contract to support the transfer of its manufacturing and purification processes to the Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center's Vaccine Pilot Plant in Frederick, Maryland. GenVec plans further clinical development of an HIV vaccine, which includes developing a larger-scale manufacturing and product-release process necessary to produce the vaccine.

Kalamazoo, MI (Oct. 2)—Pfizer CentreSource (PCS, www.pfizercentresource.com) finalized supply agreements for selected steroid APIs with contract manufacturers ScinoPharm Taiwan Ltd. (Tainan, Taiwan, www.scinopharm.com) and Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China). PCS plans to transfer later-stage processing to ScinoPharm and Shanghai Pharma to enable more cost-efficient production.

Gurgaon, India (Oct. 6)—Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited's (RLL, www.ranbaxy.com) subsidiary, Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc. (Mississauga , ON, Canada, www.ranbaxy.com/canada) entered into a licensing and supply agreement with Janssen-Ortho Inc. (Toronto, ON, www.janssen-ortho.com) for a generic fentanyl patch. The patch is sold under Ranbaxy's label "RAN" fentanyl transdermal system.

St. Louis , MO (Oct. 9)—Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (www.sigma-aldrich.com) acquired Advanced Separation Technologies, Inc. (Astec, Whippany, NJ, www.astecusa.com). The addition of Astec is expected to enhance Sigma-Aldrich's chiral chromatography capabilities and product line.

Mumbai, India (Oct. 3)—Wockhardt Limited (www.wockhardt.com) acquired Pinewood Laboratories Limited (Dublin, Ireland, www.pinewood.ie) for $150 million, thus giving Wockhardt a larger footprint in Europe.

People Notes

San Francisco , CA (Oct. 4)—Genentech, Inc. (www.gene.com)appointed Leonard Kanavy vice-president of commercial operations and promoted Anthony P. Hurley to the vice-president of fill–finish manufacturing position. Kanavy was previously vice-president of commercial operations with Novartis Pharmaceuticals, US. Hurley joined Genentech in 2005 as the senior director of the parenteral manufacturing facility.

New York , NY (Oct. 3 and 10)—The board of directors of ImClone Systems Incorporated (www.imclone.com) rejected Carl Icahn's proposals to remove six of the company's directors and elect a person of his choosing to the board. Nevertheless, chairman of the board David M. Kies and company director William W. Crouse both resigned from their positions, effective immediately.

Allegan, MI (Oct. 9)—The Perrigo Company (www.perrigo.com) appointed Joe Papa president and chief executive officer. Papa previously worked for Cardinal Health, Inc., where he served as chairman and chief executive officer of the pharmaceutical and technologies services segment.