This week saw Madrid host CPhI 2009, an event where the fine chemical companies that produce the ingredients that make up drugs (active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and the excipient ‘fillers’) meet with clients from across the pharmaceutical production food chain.

During the European Fine Chemical Group (EFCG) press conference, Guy Villax, chief executive of Hovione and board member of EFCG, warned of the increasing danger of off-patent medicines in EU pharmacies containing falsified APIs - i.e. APIs that are fraudulently labelled as being from an approved source.

According to Villax, European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare (EDQM) auditors believe the amount of fraudulent APIs appearing in EU generic drugs could be as high as 20-30 per cent, and Villax believes that ‘making fraudulent APIs is now more profitable than heroin’. The rise of ‘facade’ constructions, where certified facilites relabel APIs from non-certified sources, has been blamed for the increase.

To put the problem into perspective, a single batch of falsified APIs could reach up to a million people.

PHARMACEUTICAL

Eli Lilly offloads manufacturing site to Evonik

Eli Lilly has continued its outsourcing drive by offloading its Tippecanoe Laboratories manufacturing facility to Evonik. The Lafayette, Indiana plant had been scheduled for closure and the 700 workers were expecting to lose their jobs as part of Lilly’s drive to shed costs and 5,500 jobs, however, now they will be offered work by Evonik.

The two companies have enetered into a nine-year service and supply deal that will see Evonik provide a range of intermediate and final APIs for human and animal health products. The deal mirrors Lilly’s August 2008 deal that saw the pharma giant sell off a preclinical laboratory to Covance and then sign a ten-year deal with the contract research organisation for toxicology services.

Novartis sign up Heptares, Vanda

Novartis has signed a drug discovery deal worth up to $200 million (£122.4 million) with British biotech firm Heptares. The deal will see Heptares, which has already recieved $7 million of equity financing from Novartis, search for novel drug leads against a nominated GPCR target.

The Swiss pharma giant has also agreed to pay Vanda Pharmaceuticals $200 million for the rights to market its schizophrenia drug, Fanapt, in the US and Canada.

VaxGen to be bought by Oxigene

Troubled vaccine maker VaxGen, the developer of half of the combination AIDs vaccine that met some success in a clinical trial in Thailand last month, has been bought by biopharmaceutical company Oxigene in an all stock deal worth around $22 million.

INDUSTRY

Clariant to slash 800 more jobs

Swiss specialty chemicals company Clariant has decided to cut a further 800 jobs, adding to the 1850 it announced in January. The move follows the announcement that sales during the second quarter fell 24 per cent to CHF 1.29 billion (£774 million) and that its operating income of CHF69 million for the quarter was less than half that recorded during the prior year.

Kraton plans to go public

Houston-based Kraton Polymers is hoping to raise up to $230 million with an initial public offering which it will use to pay off some of its $323 million of debt. The company calls itself the inventor of styrenic block copolymers and had sales of $1.2 billion in 2008.

Bayer MaterialScience ends short working week

Workers at Bayer MaterialScience’s German sites will return to a 37.5 hour work week next month due to increasing sales orders. The reintroduction of normal working hours will mean around 4100 employees will return to their normal rates of pay.

‘The reason for lifting this special arrangement is the improvement in orders. Nevertheless the future business development of our customer industries still remains uncertain,’ said Tony Van Osselaer, labour director at Bayer MaterialScience.

Matt Wilkinson