Just three weeks ago, CDMO Recro Pharma expanded its footprint to the West Coast, as it acquired San Diego-based Irisys for $50 million cash. The deal helped the company branch out into a broader set of dosage forms — and now that buyout is already bearing fruit.

Recro will serve as both an advisor to BioCorRx in its small molecule development for its opiate addiction treatment drug, dubbed Bicx104, in addition to manufacturing it. The subcutaneous pellet of naltrexone has been given the OK by the FDA to start in-person trials, largely funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the NIH.

Peru will install a manufacturing plant in-country to produce the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine out of Russia, its President Pedro Castillo announced Monday.

Just about 25% of the population is fully vaccinated, while 33% has received at least one jab. Since August, the daily infection rate has hovered around the 1,000 mark.

Russia and Peru inked a deal for 20 million doses of Sputnik V in July.

Brazil just backed out of an agreement for the vaccine, citing a lapsed registration deadline, despite battling one of the toughest outbreaks in the world. Sputnik V is still awaiting emergency use authorization from the World Health Organization. In June, the agency took issue with its vial-filling procedures at a plant. A report identified problems surrounding the risk of cross-contamination and said that tracking and identifying batches of the vaccine was a concern.

A California infusion therapy company is voluntarily recalling one lot of an amino acid injection made by Pfizer spinout company Hospira after reports of fibers, hair and other particles of foreign materials were found in the solution.

ICU Medical recalled 2,112 units of Aminosyn II, 15%, after it became aware of the issue while inspecting samples as part of a routine process, the FDA said. The administration of a drug with particulates that do not belong can cause side effects ranging from inflammation at the point of injection to blood clots. So far, ICU Medical hasn’t reported any side effects or illnesses stemming from the contamination.

Bob Nelsen’s latest project, dreamed up out of anger, has been focused on becoming the Amazon Web Services of drug manufacturing, with the ability to scale in the most efficient way possible. It has now partnered with one of the most influential players in the pandemic response.

Resilience will start making mRNA for Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine at its new site in Canada, the company announced Wednesday.

The FDA on Tuesday launched a new pilot program that will initially review four novel excipients over two years, with an eye toward helping drug developers in situations where existing excipients may be difficult to employ.

The plan for such a pilot has been in the works since at least 2019, as the FDA does not currently review new excipients as part of an IND or a marketing application, although some novel excipients may provide public health benefits, such as improved drug delivery or potentially abuse-deterrent properties that could be key for new opioid formulations.

Acquisition-happy manufacturer Avantor has positioned itself at the front of the battle against Covid-19, and Tuesday it made another move to embed itself deeper into the ongoing pandemic response.

Pennsylvania-based Avantor acquired Masterflex from Antylia Scientific for $2.7 billion in an all-cash transaction, the company announced. The acquisition is Avantor’s 43rd overall, as it has put more than $11 billion into projects since 2011, the company said, with this transaction aiming to be completed in the fourth quarter.

Boulder County, CO, is getting a new manufacturing facility, and it will come from a Seattle oncology company focused on CAR T-cell immunotherapies.

Umoja Biopharma broke ground on a new facility for in vivo immunotherapies for solid tumors and hematologic malignancies, the company announced Monday. The site is the company’s next step toward bringing CAR-T therapies to cancer patients. The 146,000-square-foot facility will have labs, offices and space for lentiviral vector production.

After more than 1.6 million doses of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine were suspended last week in Japan, the country’s health ministry has identified the suspect particles and said it will not pose a larger health risk.

Findings Wednesday revealed that the metallic material inside the vials of vaccines was stainless steel, a material Moderna says does not pose additional health risks to patients. Takeda plans to recall the three affected lots of the vaccine, Moderna said Wednesday.