Endpoints Manufacturing: Lonza drops ingredients biz in $4.7B sale; Touchlight’s ‘doggyboneDNA’ looks to rewrite rules of therapeutic DNA

February 11, 2021 01:26 PM EST

Endpoints Manufacturing: Lonza drops ingredients biz in $4.7B sale; Touchlight's 'doggyboneDNA' looks to rewrite rules of therapeutic DNA

Conner Mitchell

Associate Editor

In a CDMO industry flush with cash from Covid-19, the rich keep getting richer — but that doesn’t mean the top dogs aren’t looking for opportunities to offload laggard businesses and rake in some cash. That’s exactly what Lonza did in hiving off its ingredients unit — Endpoints Manufacturing’s top story of the week.

On Monday, the nearly 125-year-old Swiss giant divested its specialty ingredients business in a $4.7 billion deal with Bain Capital and Cinven, the UK private equity firm. The sale will see Bain and Cinven take over Lonza’s 17 ingredients sites around the world, which host some 2,800 workers.

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Targeting a Potential Vulnerability of Certain Cancers with DNA Damage Response

Andree Blaukat

Every individual’s DNA is unique, and because of this, every patient responds differently to disease and treatment. It is astonishing how four tiny building blocks of our DNA – A, T, C, G – dictate our health, disease, and how we age.

The tricky thing about DNA is that it is constantly exposed to damage by sources such as ultraviolet light, certain chemicals, toxins, and even natural biochemical processes inside our cells.¹ If ignored, DNA damage will accumulate in replicating cells, giving rise to mutations that can lead to premature aging, cancer, and other diseases.

February 25, 2021 08:31 AM ESTUpdated 09:46 AM

Editor's note

Follow biotechs going public with the Endpoints News IPO Tracker

Max Gelman

Associate Editor

The Endpoints News team is continuing to track IPO filings for 2021, and we’ve designed a new tracker page for the effort.

Check it out here: Biopharma IPOs 2021 from Endpoints News

You’ll be able to find all the biotechs that have filed and priced so far this year, sortable by quarter and listed by newest first. As of the time of publishing on Feb. 25, there have already been 16 biotechs debuting on Nasdaq so far this year, with an additional four having filed their S-1 paperwork.

Steve Cutler, Icon CEO (Icon)

February 24, 2021 10:50 AM ESTUpdated 11:53 AM

Deals

In the biggest CRO takeover in years, Icon doles out $12B for PRA Health Sciences to focus on decentralized clinical work

Max Gelman

Associate Editor

Contract research M&A had a healthy run in recent years before recently petering out. But with the market ripe for a big buyout and the Covid-19 pandemic emphasizing the importance of decentralized trials, Wednesday saw a tectonic shift in the CRO world.

Icon, the Dublin-based CRO, will acquire PRA Health Sciences for $12 billion in a move that will shake up the highest rungs of a fragmented market. The merger would combine the 5th- and 6th-largest CROs by 2020 revenue, according to Icon, and the merger will set the newco up to be the second-largest global CRO behind only IQVIA.

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Tom Barnes (Orna)

February 24, 2021 07:00 AM ESTUpdated 07:20 AM

Startups

Cell/Gene Tx

The mRNA era is here. MPM believes the future belongs to oRNA — and Big Pharma wants a seat at the table

Amber Tong

Senior Editor

If the ultra-fast clinical development of Covid-19 vaccines opened the world’s eyes to the promises of messenger RNA, the subsequent delays in supply offered a crash course on the ultra-complex process of producing them. Even before the formulation and fill-finish steps, mRNA is the precious end product from an arduous journey involving enzyme-aided transcription, modification and purification.

For Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Gilead’s Kite and Astellas, it’s time to rethink the way therapeutic RNA is engineered.

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Tal Zaks, Moderna CMO (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi, via still image from video)

February 25, 2021 09:17 AM EST

R&D

Manufacturing

CMO Tal Zaks bids Moderna a surprise adieu as biotech projects $18.4B in revenue, plots post-Covid expansion

Jason Mast

Editor

How do you exit a company after six years in style? Developing one of the most lucrative and life-saving products in pharma history is probably not the worst way to go.

Tal Zaks, Moderna’s CMO since 2015, will leave the mRNA biotech in September, the biotech disclosed in their annual report this morning. The company has already retained the recruitment firm Russell Reynolds to find a replacement.

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February 25, 2021 01:44 PM ESTUpdated 02:35 PM

Outsourcing

Manufacturing

Avid Bioservices, with recent IPO and Covid-19 partnership in hand, launches 2nd phase of facility expansion

Conner Mitchell

Associate Editor

California’s Avid Bioservices now has two simultaneous expansion projects underway as the CDMO’s projections for customer demand sparked the launch this week of the second phase of building out its Myford facility.

Avid expects construction on the second phase, which will be known as its Myford South facility to take 18 to 24 months to complete at a cost of roughly $45 million to $55 million, it said in a press release.

Joe Biden (Credit: Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

February 25, 2021 01:24 PM EST

Outsourcing

Manufacturing

Biden wants a review of the API supply chain. Will that parlay into an effort to 'onshore' drug manufacturing?

Kyle Blankenship

Managing Editor

When former President Donald J. Trump was voted out of office Nov. 2, his gung-ho effort to “onshore” drug manufacturing was left mostly up in the air. Joe Biden has been mostly mum on whether he would continue that effort, but a new executive order could provide a clue — at least in a few months.

In an order signed Wednesday, Biden demanded a 100-day governmental review of key supply chains, including for active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) used in American drugs.

February 25, 2021 09:34 AM EST

Pharma

S&P expects steady erosion in Big Pharma's credit profile in 2021 as new M&A deals roll in — but don't underestimate their underlying strength

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

S&P Global has taken a look at the dominant forces shaping the pharma market and come to the conclusion that there will be more downgrades than upgrades in 2021 — the 8th straight year of steady decline.

But it’s not all bad news. Some things are looking up, and there’s still plenty of money to be made in an industry that enjoys a 30% to 40% profit margin, once you factor in steep R&D expenses.

February 25, 2021 08:37 AM EST

Manufacturing

Dutch biotech Intravacc seeks to bolster Netherlands vaccine manufacturing abilities with new plants

Conner Mitchell

Associate Editor

The pandemic has given a huge edge to any country that can produce vaccine in its borders. Now one vaccine biotech is looking to make sure their country has that edge for any future pandemic.

Arguing Covid-19 exposed the Netherlands’ “vulnerability,” Dutch vaccines company Intravacc recently announced that its new “modern pilot production plant” will soon be functional and that it’s spearheading a conglomerate designing a multipurpose vaccine production plant.