Manufacturing

Merck has announced that it has invested €35m in biosafety testing at its sites in Glasgow and Stirling, both Scotland.

Medtronic has received the CE mark for its extravascular defibrillator. The Aurora EV-ICD MRI SureScan and epsila EV MRI SureScan defibrillation lead treat abnormally fast heart rhythms, which can lead to sudden cardiac arrest.

US biotech firm Moderna has chosen Harwell Science Campus in Oxfordshire for its new UK R&D facility. The campus is already home to more than 70 organisations and sits within the UK’s ‘golden triangle’, an area rich in life sciences facilities, between Oxford, Cambridge and London.

REGENXBIO, a clinical-stage biotech company, has announced positive phase 2 data for its drug rxg-314, which was developed by the company’s NAVXpress bioreactor platform process.

J&J has begun scaling back its COVID-19 vaccine producation due to the falling demand for the jabs

Eli Lilly has announced plans to invest $450m in manufacturing facilities at Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, US

Daiichi Sankyo shares plans to build its first mRNA COVID-19 vaccine factory in Japan

Sarepta Therapeutics is a company focused on gene therapy, RNA and gene editing, engineering precision genetic medication for rare diseases. It has announced the signing of a commercial supply agreement with Catalent that will allow the company to manufacture delandistrogene moxeparvovec (SRP-9001), Sarepta’s most advanced gene therapy candidate for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

PBS Biotech, an innovative, single-use bioreactor manufacturer and process development services provider, has worked together with Avego Management and BroadOak Capital Partners to raise $22m in financing. It will be used to improve the company’s product portfolio, expand process development services and increase customer support for global cell therapy clients.

Sanofi is aiming to expand its eco-friendly and renewable energy ecosystem with plans to install solar panels on the car park, add electric vehicle charging points to the staff car park and gradually convert the corporate cars to electric vehicles over a longer period of time.

The FDA has removed approval for Eli Lilly's bebtelovimab due to its decreasing efficacy

Parthenon Therapeutics, a precision oncology company that is focusing on inventing a novel class of anti-cancer therapies to reprogramme the tumour microenvironment (TME), is collaborating with ImaginAb Inc, a global biotechnology company developing imaging agents and radiopharmaceutical therapies (RPT) products.