German pharmaceuticals, chemicals and life sciences group Merck has restructured its life science business to promote growth and to better cater to the needs of an evolving global customer base. From Apr. 1, there will be four new units supporting the segment’s operating model.
Germany’s Merck has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Exelead, a US biopharmaceutical CDMO, for around $780 million in cash. The Indianapolis, Indiana-based company specializes in complex injectable formulations, including Lipid Nanoparticle (LNP)-based drug delivery technology, which is key to mRNA therapeutics and vaccines for indications such as Covid-19.
The Life Science business segment of Germany’s Merck has won a €121 million US government contract to build a new plant for its “Hi-Flow" Plus lateral flow membranes used in rapid diagnostic test kits, including those for Covid-19.
Germany’s Merck is allocating an additional €600 million to its strategic corporate venture capital arm M Ventures. The chemicals, pharmaceuticals and life sciences group said the funds will be deployed over the next five years.
MilliporeSigma, part of the German Merck group, has agreed to provide CDMO services for SaudiVax. The Merck offshoot will design a multi-modality manufacturing plant for the Saudi company, which is pursuing the development and manufacture of halal biotherapeutics and vaccines. Financial terms of the arrangement have not been disclosed.
German pharmaceuticals, chemicals and life sciences group Merck has launched new technology and a capacity expansion to advance development of antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) therapies. The initiatives, it said, underscore its continued investment in novel modalities and support efforts to double ADC and high-potent active pharmaceutical ingredient (HPAPI) capacity in the near future.
Özlem Türeci and Uğur Şahin, founders and managing board members of Mainz-based BioNTech, were inducted into the Hall of Fame of German Research (Hall of Fame der deutschen Forschung) on Oct. 21. The awards ceremony in Wiesbaden, Germany, was organized by German pharmaceuticals, chemicals and life sciences group Merck together with Manager Magazin.
Germany’s Merck has opened its second production facility for viral vectors at Carlsbad, California, a move the company said significantly expands its global CDMO footprint. The new €100 million plant will more than double the company’s existing capacity to support large-scale commercial and industrial manufacturing for viral gene therapy.
German pharmaceuticals, chemicals and life sciences group Merck has started up a second production line for silica-based effect pigments at its Gernsheim, Germany, site. The addition to its largest pigment facility worldwide will significantly increase production capacities for silicon dioxide flakes, a special substrate for its Colorstream and Xirona products used in automotive coatings and color cosmetics, the group said.
Digital tools are a key to shortening the development of active pharmaceutical ingredients and thus market-ready drugs and therapies.
ISPE and its members are developing the roadmap to introduce Industry 4.0, also called the Smart Factory, at the pharmaceutical industry as Pharma 4.0 – an operating model that is interconnected, meaning that the digital tools allow for a fully connected network to enable direct communication between all levels in an organization.
German pharmaceuticals, chemicals and life sciences company Merck is aiming to lift group sales to about €25 billion by 2025 and up spending in its “Big 3” businesses of Life Sciences, Healthcare and Electronics as it aims to become the “world-leading science and technology company of the 21st century.”
ISPE and its members are developing the roadmap to introduce Industry 4.0, also called the Smart Factory, at the pharmaceutical industry as Pharma 4.0 – an operating model that is interconnected, meaning that the digital tools allow for a fully connected network to enable direct communication between all levels in an organization.
German pharmaceuticals, chemicals and life sciences group Merck has signed two collaboration agreements in its new bioelectronics innovation field, which it said builds on and combines its experience and expertise in its Healthcare and Electronics business segments.
The European Chemical Industry has set out on an ambitious path to become carbon neutral. Germany, as one of the major chemical manufacturing nations, has committed to achieve this goal by 2050.
The European Chemical Industry has set out on an ambitious path to become carbon neutral.
Germany’s Merck is changing the name of its Performance Materials business segment to Electronics to reflect the strategic realignment the worldwide group has undergone over the past several years and mark what it says is an additional milestone in its “Bright Future” transformation program, begun in 2018.
Germany’s Merck is investing €18 million at its new site in Tempe, Arizona, USA, including the purchase of the 28,000 m2 production facility leased by previous owner Versum Materials, a business it acquired In 2019.
Expanding its supply relationship with compatriot BioNTech, Germany’s Merck said it will “significantly accelerate” the supply of urgently needed lipids to vaccine maker BionTech at Mainz and increase the volume of deliveries up to the end of 2021.
German pharmaceuticals, chemicals and life sciences group Merck has acquired compatriot CDMO AmpTec for an undisclosed sum. The deal is designed to strengthen its life sciences’ arm’s capabilities to develop and manufacture mRNA products for applications in vaccines, treatments and diagnostics for Covid-19, among other diseases.
German pharmaceuticals, chemicals and life sciences group Merck is broadening its manufacturing footprint in the US, splitting a planned €40 million capital investment between its production facilities in Danvers, Massachusetts, and Jaffrey, New Hampshire.
The Innovation Cup is an initiative for post-graduate students and young professionals in natural sciences, computer sciences, and business administration to attend a training program near Frankfurt, Germany.
Iktos, a French company specialized in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for new drug design, has launched a collaboration with German pharmaceuticals, chemicals and life sciences group Merck.
Merck KGaA is expanding its production of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with a €20 million investment in Asia. Capacity additions are planned at sites in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, and Shanghai, China. The enhanced local capacities are intended to strengthen the German group’s position as a key supplier of high-purity OLED materials for panel makers in the region.
Germany’s Merck KGaA has agreed to collaborate with Mammoth Biosciences on development, scale-up and commercial production of the US biotech’s CRISPR-based SARS CoV-2 diagnostic test. Mammoth recently secured funding from the US National Institute of Health’s RADx program to scale its CRISPR-based testing workflow.
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Sept. 28 set aside a decision of the US district court of New Jersey in Newark, reversing the district court’s earlier decision in favor of Biogen in a damages claim against Germany’s Merck Serono (known as EMD Serono in North America).
Under the name M Lab, Germany’s Merck has opened a new collaborative drug development center in Pudong, Shanghai, China. The facility with lab space of around 10,000 m2 is the largest of the pharmaceutical, chemicals and life science group’s nine such centers worldwide and is located in the heart of Shanghai’s biomedical sciences and research community.
