PHARMACEUTICALS
Figure 2 - Generic drugs sales by volume & value in different regions
France , bringing the total to eight . The company will also open new filling operations in Switzerland and China , next year , and is committing 30 % of sales to expanding production on a continuing basis . “ With venture capital or private equity , many small companies that used to sell or license their technology now keep it and take it all the way to market ,” said Jason Bertola , Lonza ’ s executive director of commercial development for North America . “ To do that they need partners , CDMOs with depth and experience .”
Small still beautiful
In the area of small molecules , Lonza is building seven production suites at its facility at Bend , Oregon , to be in service by the middle of this year . It is also building a new production complex at its largest site at Visp , Switzerland , to be in service in Q3 2023 . From another firm active in small molecules , Thomas Loewald , CEO of Cambrex , announced $ 100 million in investments , including a $ 50 million large-scale production facility at Charles City , Iowa , to be in service by mid-year . The company has also allocated $ 20 million to boost production at Karlskoga , Sweden , and $ 30 million to double the size of the pre-clinical and Phase I facility at High Point , North Carolina .
Leon Wyszkowski , president of commercial operations and pharma services at Thermo Fisher Scientific , noted that his firm completed its largest acquisition of a CRO to date in the form of PPD , which is being integrated as the Clinical Research Group . Thermo Fisher is also opening its sixth biovector site this year in Plainville , Massachusetts , and a new cell-therapy manufacturing facility in San Francisco , in collaboration with University of California-San Francisco . It has already opened a plasmid facility in Carlsbad , California , and is moving downstream with new ‘ quick to clinic ’ and ‘ quick to cure ’ oral solids facilities in San Diego and Alachua , Florida , as well as in Singapore and China . Reflecting on COVID-19 vaccine development and production and what happens next , Anil Kane , the company ' s executive director and global head of technology and scientific affairs , commented : “ The additional investments in sterile capability will be used even if – when – pandemic demand diminishes . We had started to see growth of biologicals even before the pandemic , and those will always have to be administered as sterile injectables .” Expanding on the post-pandemic theme , Graham Lewis , vice president of global pharmaceuticals strategy at Iqvia noted in his industry outlook that “ there are signs of tensions within healthcare budgets , and also between healthcare and other budgetary segments . In the rebound from COVID there is some thinking that enough has been spent on medicine and now other considerations , such as infrastructure , environment and social issues , come to the fore .”
COVID backlog
“ COVID has ruined healthcare budgets ,” he stated . “ Money has poured into it and now we can expect some tightening . Not only is there COVID exhaustion , there is also a backlog of patients with other illnesses . One of the weaknesses that COVID has exposed is the lack of care for the elderly . We anticipate a major shift from treatment to prevention .” Lewis detailed several ways in which that trend is likely to be manifest , with mixed implications for drug makers and their suppliers . The first , as indicated by the shift in focus from treatment to prevention , will mean a strong new emphasis on diagnostics . Logically , that will be beneficial to those companies making diagnostics , less so for those in some treatments , such as late-stage . “ There has been and will continue to be more health literacy ,” Lewis said . “ When people were quarantined at home with nothing to do , they
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