biopharma

Given the narrow initial public offering window, declining venture investments and tough capital markets, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have become the exit of choice for many biopharmaceutical companies. In 2011, there were more M&As than in 2010, deal value was higher, but it still wasn't the flood of deals many industry observers had expected, according to BioWorld.

West (www.westpharma.com) has expanded its family of cyclic olefin polymer (COP) products with the introduction of the Daikyo Crystal Zenith (CZ) 1-mL long insert needle syringe system. The 1-mL long format has been favored for packaging of biologics in prefilled syringes. In manufacturing at West’s Scottsdale, AZ, facility, the needle is insert-molded into the plastic syringe.

dhesives and tungsten residues—potential contaminates in glass syringes with staked needles—are avoided, says Graham Reynolds, vice president, marketing and innovation, West.

Advanced parenteral delivery solutions are affording product differentiation and therapeutic benefits across a range of therapies.

In needle-based injection, cartridge-based pens and prefilled syringes loaded into disposable auto injector devices offer features that support easier self administration by patients.

Last year, Baxter’s BioPharma Solutions business (www.baxterbiopharmasolutions.com) expanded its cytotoxic contract manufacturing capacity to increase support of early-phase oncology sterile drug formulation through commercial scale-up, introduction, and lifecycle management. In need of a capacity extension, Baxter replaced a vial-filling machine with a highly automated filling line including a closed Restricted Access Barrier System (cRABS) dedicated for aseptic manufacturing of cytotoxics at its manufacturing facility in Halle (Westfalen), Germany.