Inocras, a US AI-driven bioinformatics company that specialises in delivering insights to cancer and rare disease patients through whole genome sequencing, and Summit Pharmaceuticals International, a Japanese integrated service provider to the pharmaceutical industry, have signed a MoU to explore the commercialisation of their whole genome sequencing analysis services. This collaboration aims to revolutionise healthcare in Japan by leveraging genomic data and bioinformatics to better understand and treat cancer and other genetic conditions.
US biotech Ring Therapeutics, a company founded by US life sciences venture capital company Flagship Pioneering to revolutionise gene therapy with its commensal virome platform, has announced new strategic partnerships with the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR), Singapore’s lead public sector R&D agency, and the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI) to advance innovative R&D efforts and support the continued development of the biomedical science ecosystem in the region. The A*STAR and SERI partnership will accelerate the creation of new potential treatments for eye diseases (ophthalmology) and cancer (oncology), while also improving the methods and technologies needed to produce these treatments.
German biotech Evotec has announced the sale of its chemical API manufacturing site, Evotec DS, located in Halle, Germany, to Monacum Partners – a Munich-based private equity firm. This transaction forms part of Evotec’s initiative to focus on its primary growth sectors and core competencies.
US investment firm Prologis has announced a £500m investment in the UK’s University of Cambridge Biomedical Campus (CBC), supporting UK government plans to attract private funding. The Prologis project funds a 10,700m2 expansion to CBC – a world-leading biomedical cluster which currently generates £4.2bn/year for the UK economy. The development, aimed at a range of scale-ups and research-led life sciences companies, will be part of the expanding world-class ecosystem at CBC, which brings together clinical, academic and commercial excellence.
Clariant, a Swiss speciality chemical, has announced the successful installation of its EnviCat N2O-S catalyst at the nitric acid plant of Hengli Petrochemical, a Chinese company active in oil refining, petrochemicals, polyesters and textiles. EnviCat N2O-S was installed as part of Clariant’s global Climate Campaign, which offered a free load of the N2O removal catalyst to nitric acid producers with no abatement technology. One of the winners of the campaign is Hengli which operates a 300,000t/year nitric acid plant in Dalian, China. With the successful installation of the catalyst in June 2024, the plant is projected to reduce its N2O emissions by 690,000t/year of CO2eq.
French pharma Sanofi has announced an investment of €40m in its Lyon Gerland bioproduction site, consolidating its role as a strategic platform dedicated to immunology. Part of this investment (€25m) is being dedicated to the production and development of the second generation of Thymoglobulin, the company’s polyclonal antibody, which is crucial for transplant patients. The remaining €15m is for production of monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of type 1 diabetes in the preclinical and clinical stages of the disease.
Avid Bioservices, a US biologics CDMO that provides development and manufacturing services to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, UK healthcare investment advisor GHO Capital Partners and Ampersand Capital Partners, a US life sciences and healthcare-focused private equity firm, have entered into a definitive merger agreement for Avid to be acquired by funds managed by GHO and Ampersand in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $1.1bn.
Saudi Arabian chemical manufacturing company SABIC has announced the launch of a new $170m manufacturing facility in Singapore, marking the company’s first advanced specialty chemical manufacturing facility in the region that can produce ULTEM resin, a high-performance amorphous, amber-to transparent thermoplastic. The new facility is part of SABIC’s strategic move to increase global ULTEM specialty resin production by more than 50%, responding to the growing demand from high-tech and manufacturing industries in the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan and China.
Oxford Nanopore, a UK company providing nanopore-based molecular sensing technology, has announced a strategic partnership with the UK Government. This partnership brings together world-class British scientific organisations Genomics England, UK Biobank and NHS England, alongside Oxford Nanopore, to support the government’s vision to build an NHS ‘fit for the future’ by enabling genomics-based translational research and accelerating the development and adoption of Oxford Nanopore’s genomics technology in the NHS. The initiative aims to deliver improvements in patient care and foster economic growth in the UK’s life sciences sector.
£1m
Glox Therapeutics, a UK medicine company spun out from the Universities of Glasgow and Oxford, and which is pioneering the development of precision antibiotic therapies based on naturally occurring bacteriocins, has secured £1m in grant funding from PACE (Pathways to Antimicrobial Clinical Efficacy), one of the UK’s largest public-private initiatives targeting early-stage antimicrobial medicines and diagnostic discovery. The funding will help accelerate the development of antibiotics targeting drug-resistant pathogenic bacteria, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae.
1,200L
Lonza a Swiss manufacturing company for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and nutrition sectors, is to invest in additional bioconjugation capabilities in Visp, Switzerland. The expansion will add two multipurpose 1,200L manufacturing suites and manufacturing-related infrastructure to the existing bioconjugation facility. The new capacity will generate approximately 200 new jobs and is expected to be operational from 2028.
38%
German pharma and biotech Bayer has launched a first-of-its-kind in the healthcare industry, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) blister packaging. Working in partnership with Swiss pharma packaging specialist Liveo Research, this solution reduces the carbon footprint of this type of packaging by 38% and makes a positive move in environmental stewardship by eliminating the use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
25%
Belgian materials company Syensqo has increased its US production capacity for advanced polymers used in critical health, water and energy applications. By expanding production of its Udel polysulfones sulfone polymers at its Marietta, Ohio facility by more than 25%, Syensqo aims to meet growing demand for innovative materials in life science markets.
UK sustainable technologies company Johnson Matthey and US direct air capture company Noya have established a partnership to manufacture Noya’s proprietary sorbent, the filter at the heart of its direct air capture CO2 technology.
Vesalius Therapeutics, a US company developing a platform to deliver treatments for common diseases, has announced a multi-target strategic alliance with UK pharma and biotech GSK to discover and develop novel treatments for Parkinson’s disease, and another undisclosed neurodegenerative indication. Vesalius will leverage its platform to identify novel intervention points in Parkinson’s disease and one additional indication in neurodegeneration, and GSK will have the option to advance programs against those novel intervention points.
Flare Therapeutics a US clinical-stage biotech targeting transcription factors to discover precision medicines for oncology and other therapeutic areas, has entered a strategic discovery collaboration with Swiss healthcare company Roche. This partnership will leverage Flare Therapeutics’ proteomic and mass spectrometry platform and expertise, powered by its library of electrophilic compounds, to discover novel small molecule drugs aimed at previously undrugged transcription factor targets in oncology.
Swiss pharma Novartis has bought US preclinical-stage biotech Kate Therapeutics in a deal valued at $1.1bn. The purchase enhances Novartis’s portfolio of gene therapies for inherited neuromuscular diseases.
Schrödinger, a US scientific software and biotechnology company that specialises in developing computational tools and software for drug discovery and materials science, has announced a research collaboration and license agreement with Swiss pharma Novartis to advance development candidates into Novartis’s portfolio for further development. The companies also announced a three-year software agreement that substantially increases Novartis’s access to Schrödinger’s computational predictive modelling technology and enterprise informatics platform.
German biotech BioNTech and Chinese clinical-stage biotech Biotheus, which is dedicated to the discovery and development of novel antibodies to address the unmet medical needs of patients with oncological or inflammatory diseases, have announced that BioNTech is paying $800m to buy Biotheus and secure full rights to a leading prospect in the immuno-oncology space. With the acquisition, BioNTech will obtain full global rights to the late-stage clinical asset BNT327/PM8002, an investigational bispecific antibody targeting PD-L1 and VEGF-A.
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has launched its Institute for Cell Therapy Discovery & Innovation. The institute will bring together scientists and clinicians to lead discovery and clinical research to deliver insights in immunology and cell engineering, fuelling the creation of new treatments that can be adapted to address emerging needs in cancer, autoimmune diseases, infections and other conditions.
BioPharmaSpec, a US/UK-based CRO for the discovery and preclinical characterisation of biopharmaceuticals, has announced three new European facilities at Freiburg, Germany; Bergamo, Italy; and Vilnius, Lithuania. These will focus on discovery and R&D, offering structural and physicochemical characterisation services for a variety of biopharmaceutical products, including monoclonal antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, cell and gene therapy products, bioactive peptides, oligonucleotides and carbohydrates, together with HCP identification and the quantitation of other relevant product- and process-related impurities.
South African manufacturer Sasol Chemicals has announced the availability of its new formulation NACOL 18-98, a palm-free, biobased stearyl alcohol solution for the personal care industry. This product addresses growing concerns about deforestation and the environmental impact of palm-derived products while providing the same performance as traditional stearyl alcohols.
UK mass photometry technologies company Refeyn has launched a custom software platform providing automated analysis of large mass photometry data sets. Refeyn’s new Streamline software suite offers specialist analysis modules, automating data processing through standardised workflows for key bioanalytical applications to deliver more consistent results in a shorter time.
Henkel, a German manufacturer of adhesives, sealants and functional coatings, and Celanese, a US specialty materials company, have announced a partnership to enhance circularity in emulsion production by using carbon capture-based materials. Earlier in 2024, Celanese launched a carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) project at its Clear Lake, Texas site as part of its Fairway Methanol joint venture with Japanese chemicals company Mitsui. The CCU technology captures industrial CO2 emissions and, using hydrogen, converts them into methanol, which forms 35% of vinyl acetate monomer – a crucial element for producing polymers often used in adhesive formulations. Through this collaboration, Henkel will now produce water-based adhesives made from captured CO2 emissions.
An Australian-led scientific breakthrough to increase oil yield from plants will help advance the production and use of biofuels, such as sustainable aviation fuel. Developed over a decade by scientists from CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, the technology was acquired by Australian agricultural company Nufarm. The result is a biomass oil project with Nufarm leading a new global research partnership to further develop the technology. Oils from plants are produced by specialised seeds and fruits, but CSIRO scientists extended that to the biomass of the plant – including the leaves and stem.
German chemical company BASF has launched Ultramid T7000, a new portfolio of materials using polyamide and polyphthalamide blends for advanced metal replacement applications in structural parts. These new materials are intended for components which need stiffness and dimensional stability, and which are exposed to moisture, such as automotive mirrors, air brake parts, valves and furniture components.
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