Healthcare industry

Expert interview - 17/10/2018

Biologicals are becoming increasingly important to Boehringer Ingelheim

Biopharmaceuticals are playing an increasingly important role in Boehringer Ingelheim’s development pipeline. Visible evidence of this is the company’s Biologicals Development Centre (BDC) that is currently being constructed in Boehringer Ingelheim’s Biberach plant and will bring the company’s process development under one roof by early 2020. Walter Pytlik from BIOPRO talked with Dr. Ing. Ralf Schumacher about the new centre.

Personalised Medicine - 04/05/2017

Big data make therapy work better

An international team of researchers has shown for acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) that cancer therapy can be personalised using big data. The authors of the study “believe this paper is a step towards validation of genetic techniques as a route to personalised medicine”.

Article - 10/10/2016

Teva plans the large-scale production of monoclonal antibodies in Ulm

Teva is investing heavily in its biotechnological production site in Ulm. On behalf of BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg, Walter Pytlik spoke with Dr. Hermann Allgaier, CEO of Teva Biotech, about the importance of biotechnology for the Group and about Teva in general. The company is headquartered in Israel.

Article - 02/02/2015

Rentschler Biotechnologie invests in new production plant

The Laupheim-based contract manufacturer Rentschler Biotechnologie GmbH is greatly expanding its production capacities. The company is investing €24 million in the construction of two 3,000 litre stainless steel bioreactors, which should be operational in early 2017 and will more than double the production capacities for cell culture-derived proteins. Rentschler also announced recently that it was adding a new 2,000 litre single-use bioreactor…

Article - 18/08/2014

VAXIMM: Vaccines that impede cancer growth

VAXIMM GmbH, a young biotechnology company from Mannheim, Germany, specialises in the development of vaccines for cancer treatment. The company’s first product candidate, VXM01, is a live oral vaccine that targets the VEGFR-2 receptor and hence the blood supply of tumours. VXM01 is currently undergoing clinical testing in pancreatic cancer patients.

Article - 24/10/2011

Ascendis Pharma: transient drug conjugates

Ascendis Pharma’s proprietary technology platform, TransCon, is a novel prodrug technology for the production of new patentable versions of drugs already on the market, which has been developed for improving the dosage form and effect in patients. A Phase II clinical study of Ascendis Pharma’s most advanced drug candidate, a PEGylated growth hormone that only needs to be administered once-weekly to growth hormone-deficient adults, has recently…

Dossier - 05/10/2011

Biosimilars: follow-on biologics of innovator biopharmaceutical products

As blockbuster biopharmaceuticals go off patent, biosimilars are increasingly competing with them for a market share. However, the production of biosimilars is rather complex and costly. The approval of biosimilars is also subject to many hurdles. Their introduction to the very expensive biopharmaceuticals market is often associated with marginal price reductions.

Article - 20/09/2011

Expansion and concentration in the biosimilars market

Europe is the leader in the global biosimilars business. The prospects are excellent as the patents of many innovator biopharmaceuticals, including therapeutic antibodies, have reached or are about to reach patent expiry. The profitable, though difficult biosimilars market, is increasingly dominated by a handful of financially strong companies.

Article - 18/03/2010

Giant becomes even bigger: Teva acquires ratiopharm

As it turned out, the deal went through quicker than expected. The world’s biggest generic pharmaceuticals producer Teva Pharmaceuticals is set to acquire the Ulm-based competitor ratiopharm for around 3.6 billion euros. Representatives from both companies and other parties involved in the bidding process announced the signing of the purchase agreement in Cologne on 18th March.

Article - 14/12/2009

s4s Tries – thorough and reliable pharmaceuticals services provider

s4s stands for ”service for success” and Tries stands for Susanne Tries, the founder of the Ehingen-based company. Since 2002, the pharmacist has been offering services to the pharmaceutical industry and in this time the company has more than lived up to its claim of “service for success”. In fact, the company’s success is now enabling it to go one step further. The company founder envisages complementing her company’s established service…

Dossier - 14/01/2009

Biopharmaceuticals continue their triumphant success

The first genetically engineered drug entered the market a little over 25 years ago. Since then more than 100 others have been launched. Many of these biopharmaceuticals have an outstanding effect thus revolutionising the therapeutic options available in many medical sectors. Biopharmaceuticals also have a huge economic potential. The huge potential of these innovative drugs and their importance for Germanys pharmaceutical industry is reflected…

ratiopharm has been given approval by the EU regulatory office for its filgrastim biosimilar which will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2008. The company has already applied for market authorisation of another genetically engineered pharmaceutical.

Article - 31/03/2008

First biosimilar from Ulm close to approval

ratiopharm Germanys second largest generics producer received a positive assessment from the EU regulatory body EMEA in London for the first filgrastim biosimilar. The company expects to receive marketing authorisation for its first biosimilar by mid to end April.

Red biotechnology became commercially successful because process engineering succeeded in expressing foreign genes in microorganisms and got a grip on cells tissue cells were not only cultivated using technical methods but also purified for medical application on an industrial scale. However the biopharmaceutical industry is now facing rising costs.