Business digest

Cellular Origins, a UK provider of automated manufacturing for cell and gene therapy, has announced a collaboration with 3P Innovation, a UK supplier of automated fill-finish equipment. The partnership will integrate 3P Innovation’s cryoFIL cryovial filling platform within Cellular Origins’ robotic system, Constellation, expanding the system’s capabilities by enabling automated filling of cryovials within a closed and sterile environment.

German science and technology company Merck and technology company Siemens have deepened their cooperation in smart manufacturing by signing a Memorandum of Understanding to expand cooperation. The agreement makes Siemens a preferred global supplier and strategic partner for smart manufacturing technologies, paving the way for projects across Merck’s three business sectors using the Siemens Xcelerator platform, which will provide Merck with cutting-edge software and hardware solutions. A key element of the partnership is modular production based on the ‘plug & produce’ principle. This approach allows individual process modules to be added, removed or reconfigured with ease, significantly reducing the time to market, lowering investment costs and cutting CO2 emissions.

Canadian early-stage gene therapy company NanoVation Therapeutics, which develops technologies to overcome the barriers to nucleic acid delivery, has formed a multi-year partnership with Danish pharma Novo Nordisk to advance the development of novel genetic medicines targeting cardiometabolic and rare diseases. The partnership combines NanoVation Therapeutics’ proprietary long-circulating lipid nanoparticle (lcLNP) technology for RNA delivery to cells outside of the liver with Novo Nordisk’s expertise in cardiometabolic and rare disease R&D and clinical translation.

German specialty chemicals company Evonik has developed a new model of the skin microbiome. For the first time, this model allows a scientifically substantiated evaluation of the influence of cosmetic ingredients and products on skin microbiota in laboratory tests. The new model means the impact of cosmetic ingredients on microbial communities is now measurable. Evonik is testing cosmetic ingredients from its own product portfolio to obtain evidence-based information on their microbiome-friendliness.

Arctoris, a drug discovery services company headquartered in Oxford, UK, and Boston, US, has acquired the majority of Eli Lilly’s San Diego-based Lilly Life Sciences Studio laboratory – a remote-controlled robotic laboratory. The acquisition significantly expands Arctoris’ research facilities, enhancing productivity and increasing the capacity to conduct multiple experiments simultaneously. The lab is expected to further reduce R&D project timelines for Arctoris’ biotech clients while addressing reproducibility and data ambiguity issues often associated with traditional, human-led laboratory approaches.

US biopharma Gilead Sciences and Genesis Therapeutics, a US AI-focused biotech, have entered a strategic collaboration to discover and develop novel, small molecule therapies across multiple targets. The collaboration will deploy Genesis’ AI platform, GEMS (Genesis Exploration of Molecular Space), to assist in generating and optimising molecules for targets selected by Gilead.

US biotech Provivi and Syngenta Biologicals, part of the Syngenta Group, a global agricultural technology company headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, which is entirely owned by Sinochem, a Chinese state-owned enterprise, have announced a collaboration to develop and commercialise new pheromone-based biological solutions to control detrimental pests in corn and rice. These crops serve as a primary food source for 3.5bn people globally. The two new pheromone solutions will help farmers manage devastating pests: Yellow Stem Borer in India and Indonesia and Fall Armyworm in Thailand.

UK energy-from-waste operator enfinium has launched the UK’s first carbon capture pilot at its Ferrybridge facility in Knottingley, UK. The technology, a containerised, scaled-down version of the CCS technology that enfinium could deploy across all its sites, was supplied by Swiss green technology company Hitachi Zosen Inova and is capturing one tonne/day of CO2 emissions from the plant’s operations. The pilot is collecting real operational data on performance, such as CO2 capture rate and solvent degradation information, and will assess the performance of different amine solvents. The trial will run for at least 12 months.

Swiss healthcare company Roche has opened its new Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) Center at its global headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. Equipped with cutting-edge technologies and housing around 1000 state-of-the-art laboratory and office workplaces, the new facility brings together teams of scientists and researchers to accelerate scientific discoveries for patients.

Japanese technology company Asahi Kasei has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with De Nora, an Italian electrochemical and sustainable technologies company, which manufactures electrolyser cells, small-scale electrolysers, and components to produce green hydrogen through water electrolysis. The MoU concerns the joint development, study, evaluation and sale of small-scale pressurised alkaline water electrolysers.

German chemicals company BASF has inaugurated a new world-scale production plant for alkyl ethanolamines at its Verbund site in Antwerp, Belgium. This new site will increase the company’s global annual production capacity for alkyl ethanolamines, including dimethyl ethanolamine and methyl diethanolamine, by nearly 30% to over 140,000t/year.

Acepodia, a US clinical-stage biotechnology company developing cell therapies with its Antibody-Cell Conjugation and allogeneic gamma delta 2 (γδ2) T cell platforms, has entered a strategic clinical collaboration with Pfizer Ignite, a US collaborative partner for biotechs. The partnership will support the development of Acepodia’s autoimmune disease therapies by leveraging Pfizer’s significant resources, scale, and expertise, alongside a proven track record in the development of breakthroughs, to accelerate biotech innovations from preclinical R&D through the development lifecycle.

VTT, the largest state research and technology body in Finland, LUT University (Finland), and partner companies have opened a pilot plant in Espoo, Finland to process captured CO2 into compounds that can replace fossil raw materials in plastic products and chemicals.

Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Chemical Group (MCG) has launched studies to perform chemical recycling of end-of-life tyres (ELTs) by using the coke ovens at its Kagawa Plant and aims to begin marketing sustainable carbon black made from ELTs by March 2026. MCG feeds crushed ELTs as raw material into its coke ovens and produces carbon black from the tar. The resulting sustainable carbon black has the same performance as conventional carbon black and can be reused in new tyres, thereby contributing to a recycling closed loop.

Lubrizol, a US specialty chemistry company, has opened its Beauty Research Institute in Shanghai, China. The site will serve as a strategic hub to grow its in vivo beauty testing capabilities, expanding the company’s R&D and lab network in Asia Pacific and house clinical testing equipment and collaborative workspaces based on best practices from Lubrizol’s clinical testing facility in Barcelona, Spain. It is designed to offer state-of-the-art claim substantiation, sensory evaluation and consumer insight generation, as well as training and education programs.

Indian pharma Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories together with its CRDMO arm Aurigene Pharmaceutical Services, have announced that they have signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with US pharma Kainomyx, which has a proprietary platform that helps target cytoskeletal proteins of parasites. This is a novel mechanism of action for the development and commercialisation of affordable anti-malarial drugs in the US, Europe, and in low and middle-income countries.

Lindy Biosciences, a US biotech specialising in drug formulation and delivery technologies, has announced a multi-target exclusive global licensing agreement and strategic collaboration with Swiss pharma Novartis Pharma. The collaboration will focus on transitioning Novartis medicines to convenient, self-administered subcutaneous injections using Lindy Biosciences’ proprietary microglassification suspension technology. By delivering high concentrations of biologics, this technology significantly increases the maximum dose that can be administered in a single subcutaneous injection. This has the potential to reduce healthcare costs while also improving patient comfort, convenience and treatment compliance.

German pharma Bayer and NextRNA Therapeutics, a US biotech developing medicines to address long non-coding RNA (lncRNA)-driven diseases, have entered into a collaboration and licence agreement to develop small molecule therapeutics targeting lncRNAs in oncology.