Pee, Purple, Potions & Pills
Martin Pitt looks at the origins of the pharmaceutical industry
Features
The Future of Biopharma
David Gemmell discusses the evolution of continuous and intensified bioprocessing
Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing: An Evolving Industry
David Gemmell discusses how chemical engineers play their part in modern-day biopharma
Dreaming Big and Changing the World Through Chemical Engineering
Amanda Jasi speaks to pioneering chemical engineer Robert Langer about his successes and offers a...
A Cleaner, Greener Future: ‘We are Key, and we are Responsible’
Amanda Jasi speaks to Nobel Prize winner Frances Arnold about how chemical engineering can help h...
Digitalisation for Pharma
Tony Margetts explains the industry’s challenges around connecting and collecting
An Introduction to the Biopharmaceutical Industry
David Gemmell looks at key unit operations, and why chemical engineers are heavily involved in th...
Making Medicines: Safely
Naomi Atkinson talks about her role in ensuring safe and compliant manufacture of therapeutics an...
A Booster for the Covid Vaccine Rollout
Ranna Eardley-Patel discusses her career path through consumer goods, nanotechnology, biopharmace...
Small but Mighty
Noor Al-Rifai and Rene Holm look at the use of nanosuspensions as long-acting injectables
Attractive Solutions
Alessandro Viola explains how magnets can filter out metal particle contamination in pharmaceutic...
Making (Anti)sense of Oligonucleotide Manufacturing
Anna Watson discusses the chemical engineering challenges of new modality medicines
Repurposing Drugs: The Key to a Healthier Future
How repurposing drugs has become an industry in its own right.
Thailand: Covid-19 and the Vaccine
How the Covid-19 vaccine development is progressing in Thailand
Taking Aim
Malcolm Wilkinson and members of IChemE’s Sustainability Special Interest Group discuss the futur...
Describe, Diagnose, Predict and Prescribe – make it Data not Drugs!
Researchers and industry have developed a guide to data analytics for pharmaceutical manufacturing
Search Light
Adam Duckett on searching for the positive news
The Pharmaceutical Industry: Engineering Frustrations
Hedley Rees and Keith Plumb discuss how current methods of drug development are impeding engineer...
Engineering Pharma
Huai Nyin (Grace) Yow and colleagues discuss the engineering challenges specific to pharmaceutica...
Rules of Thumb: Chromatography Systems
Stephen Hall provides practical insights into on-the-job problems
Feedback Loops
Adam Duckett on the changes being forced upon us by Covid-19.
Digital Therapeutics
How far has the technology come, asks Parminder Bansal
Quickly, More Vaccines
Chris Lucas speaks to Adam Duckett about accelerating the UK’s emergency vaccine production capab...
Vaccine Development: Mind the Gap
Timothy Clayton reviews the myriad of considerations faced by IChemE volunteers seeking to suppor...
The diagnostics challenge
Testing provides the essential information needed for key decisions such as when to relax lockdow...
A Project to Develop and Protect
Matthew Duchars and John Challenger describe the plans to design and build a facility that the UK...
Managing vaccine manufacture scaleup
Withthe UK Government having announced the formation of a new taskforce that will help prepare th...
Teaming up for Vaccines
CPI discusses the importance of bringing an engineering mindset to collaborate with biologists on...
Design by Modelling
Reactor modelling reveals that pharma developers could use CSTRs to perform commercial-scale oper...
Where Next for AI in Drug Discovery?
Adrian Tombling explains why drug developers need AI
A Clean Bill of Health
James Finn describes the development of an award-winning setup for sterile filtration of APIs
Monodispersion at Scale
Micropore Technologies, a specialist engineering company, has successfully scaled up membrane tec...
Water for the pharmaceutical industry
IChemE’s Water Special Interest Group (SIG) celebrated 30 years of existence at its Water for the...
Honey, I Shrunk the Antimicrobial Resistance
An engineer’s role in rejuvenating a naturally-inspired antimicrobial
Bioprocessing insights on getting the most from your data
Ahead of our coming webinar on 9 October, the presenters from JMP and GSK discuss using data to i...
Under One Roof
The University of Cambridge’s new chemical engineering and biotechnology building is open for b...
Hands On
Adam Duckett reports from the launch of the University of Sheffield’s new continuous powder proce...
Spiralling into Affordable Healthcare
New reactor promises continuous processing of biotherapeutics
Vaccines: The End of the Cold War?
How an award-winning ensilication technology could remove the need to refrigerate life-saving vac...
Unchained Remedy
Adam Duckett discusses breaking the vaccine cold chain
The Big Vision
Next-generation batch technologies drive productivity and profitability
Solar-Powered Water Purification Wins Top Prize
Helen Tunnicliffe reviews the winners of IChemE’s annual awards programme
George Rosenkranz and colleagues – Engineering the Sexual Revolution
Chemical engineers have a lot to answer for – including the Summer of Love. Claudia Flavell-Whi...
Pfizer's Penicillin Pioneers – Jasper Kane and John McKeen
Pfizer's Penicillin Pioneers – Jasper Kane and John McKeen
Better by Design
Quality by design must be viewed as an opportunity, not as a regulatory burden
News
GSK to buy biopharmaceutical company Affinivax
GLAXOSMITHKLINE (GSK) has announced it will buy biopharmaceutical company Affinivax, in a deal wo...
BioNTech and Matinas collaborate on mRNA vaccines
BIONTECH has signed a collaboration agreement with Matinas BioPharma to advance formulations for ...
UK’s state-backed vaccine manufacturing centre sold
THE UK’s emergency vaccine manufacturing innovation centre (VMIC) has been sold to US manufacture...
Croda to expand UK lipids output for vaccine production
CRODA has been awarded £15.9m (US$20.8m) by the UK Government to increase the output of its plant...
Evonik invests in 3D pharmaceuticals printing
EVONIK, through its corporate venture capital unit, has invested an undisclosed amount in Laxxon ...
BioNTech develops modular mRNA manufacturing facilities for Africa
BIONTECH has announced that it is introducing modular and scalable mRNA manufacturing facilities ...
‘Biotech pioneer’ Elizabeth Holmes found guilty of fraud
ELIZABETH HOLMES, a former chemical engineering student who garnered praise as a Silicon Valley b...
Poll: Engineers warn sale of UK vaccine centre risks health security and industry innovation
ENGINEERS have hit out at the UK Government’s reported plans to sell off the country’s emergency ...
Valneva collaborates for Covid-19 vaccine production
VALNEVA and biotech company IDT Biologika are collaborating to produce Valneva’s inactivated Covi...
AstraZeneca opens new R&D facility
ASTRAZENECA has opened a new £1bn (US$1.3bn) R&D facility in Cambridge, UK.
Johnson & Johnson to focus on pharmaceuticals
JOHNSON & Johnson has announced that it plans to separate its Consumer Health business, leaving t...
AstraZeneca invests and collaborates for therapeutics platform
ASTRAZENECA and Imperial College London spinoff VaxEquity have agreed to collaborate for the disc...
Clean Cells to build new production facility
BIOPHARMACEUTICAL company Clean Cells has invested €13m (US$15.3m) in a new production facility i...
AstraZeneca to build manufacturing facility in Ireland
ASTRAZENECA has announced that it is planning to build a new active pharmaceutical ingredient (AP...
MoU for Canadian mRNA vaccine facility
MODERNA has announced a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Canadian Government to build a...
Bayer to buy novel drug discovery company for US$2bn
BAYER is acquiring biopharmaceutical company Vividion Therapeutics, which uses novel discovery te...
Sanofi to buy Translate Bio to advance mRNA therapeutics
SANOFI will acquire its partner Translate Bio in a US$3.2bn deal to further develop mRNA vaccines...
Nouryon expands Kromasil facility
NOURYON is investing in its Kromasil manufacturing facility in Bohus, Sweden, to help meet increa...
Partnership to produce Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in South Africa
PFIZER and BioNTech have signed a letter of intent with South African biopharmaceutical company B...
Sanofi invests in mRNA vaccine centre
SANOFI will invest about €400m (US$472m) annually in a first-of-its-kind vaccines mRNA Center of ...
Siemens and BioNTech commit to accelerate Covid-19 vaccine scale-out, starting in Singapore
SIEMENS and BioNTech say they will build a Covid-19 vaccine facility in Singapore, as part of eff...
WHO announces first Covid vaccine technology transfer hub
The World Health Organization (WHO) and its COVAX partners are working with a South African conso...
Innova to manufacture rapid Covid-19 tests in UK
INNOVA Medical Group has announced plans to manufacture its rapid Covid-19 tests in the UK throug...
Increasing yield for portable vaccine production method
RESEARCHERS at Northwestern University, US have discovered a way to improve their new protein-bas...
BioNTech announces new facility in Singapore
BIONTECH has announced that it will build an mRNA manufacturing facility in Singapore as well as ...
Lonza and Moderna enter agreement to increase vaccine production
LONZA has entered a new agreement with Moderna to double production for Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccin...
Sanofi invests in new vaccine production facility in Singapore
SANOFI is investing €400m (US$479m) over five years to build a new vaccine production facility in...
Agreement to support Covid-19 vaccine manufacture
BIOPHARMACEUTICAL company Takeda and IDT Biologika have announced an agreement to use IDT capacit...
BioNTech expects 2.5bn Covid-19 vaccines in 2021
BioNTech expects to expand manufacturing capacity for the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine to up to 2.5bn ...
GSK supports UK vaccine manufacture
GSK, Novavax, and the UK Government Vaccines Taskforce have reached an agreement in principle for...
Novartis joins effort to produce CureVac vaccine for Covid-19
NOVARTIS has signed an agreement to manufacture CureVac’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate at its site ...
Johnson & Johnson to collaborate with Merck to increase vaccine production
MERCK will produce Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines in a collaboration that the Biden administ...
GSK to close two UK antibiotics manufacturing sites
GSK is closing two UK antibiotics manufacturing operations, in Barnard Castle and Ulverston.
Accelerating novel vaccine inactivation method
SEEKING to accelerate a novel method for producing inactivated vaccines to market and ensure comp...
BioNTech secures deals for lipids needed in vaccine
BIONTECH has partnered with Merck and Evonik to expand lipid production for its Covid-19 vaccine.
AstraZeneca plans to expand European vaccine manufacturing
ASTRAZENECA has signed a deal with IDT Biologika to explore options to accelerate manufacturing o...
CureVac expands vaccine manufacturing with Bayer and GSK
CUREVAC, which is developing an mRNA vaccine for Covid-19, will boost its manufacturing capacity ...
What is causing AstraZeneca’s vaccine production woes?
WITH Covid-19 vaccine manufacture making headlines for all the wrong reasons, I spoke with expert...
Valneva starts manufacturing Covid-19 vaccine
VALNEVA has announced that it has started manufacturing its Covid-19 vaccine as clinical trials a...
Volunteers publish guide to help public understand fill and finish and drug product release
Members of the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering UK Affiliate (ISPE UK) and IC...
UK Government aims to increase production of rapid Covid-19 tests
THE UK Government has commissioned PA Consulting to develop plans to scale up manufacturing of la...
INEOS donates £100m to antimicrobial research
CHEMICAL company INEOS has donated £100m (US$136.8m) to the University of Oxford, UK for a new, s...
BioNTech increases Covid-19 vaccine production target to 2bn for 2021
BIONTECH has said that it aims to produce 2bn doses of its vaccine this year through increased ma...
Ebola vaccine stockpile established
A STOCKPILE of Ebola vaccine has been established by humanitarian organisations to help better pr...
CureVac joins forces with Bayer to speed up supply of Covid-19 vaccine
CUREVAC has agreed to work with Bayer to accelerate the development and supply of its Covid-19 va...
AstraZeneca buys Alexion for US$39bn
ASTRAZENECA has agreed to buy US biotech firm Alexion for US$39bn in a move that will expand its ...
Attention turns to vaccine production following successful trials
FOLLOWING three highly-encouraging Covid-19 vaccine trials, the light at the end of the tunnel su...
Micropore Technologies partners with South Korean pharmaceutical company
MICROPORE Technologies has announced a licence agreement for its membrane technology with South K...
IChemE welcomes vaccine announcement but calls for engineering focus
ICHEME’s Covid-19 Response Team has welcomed the early results on the Pfizer and BioNTech Covid-1...
Two killed in Indian reactor explosion
ON 5 November, in the early hours of the morning, two people were killed as a result of a reactor...
BES appointed to fit out UK’s VMIC
SERVICES company BES has been appointed to fit out the UK’s new Vaccine Manufacturing Innovation ...
Experts warn global Covid vaccine could take until late 2023
DESPITE global efforts to develop and deploy a successful Covid-19 vaccine to end the current pan...
US$130m facility to expand Asia Pacific sterile filling capacity
SCIENCE company Thermo Fisher Scientific has announced plans to expand sterile filling capacity f...
PSE and Siemens join partnership to advance continuous drug manufacturing
THE UK’s Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre has expanded its partners to include PSE, Siem...
UK bolsters Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing capacity
THE UK Government has increased the nation’s Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing capacity. It has agre...
UK Government invests £100m to accelerate Covid-19 vaccine manufacture
THE UK Government has announced a £100m (US$127.7m) investment to fund a state-of-the-art facilit...
Covid-19 antibody test gives results in 20 minutes
A BLOOD test has been developed by researchers in Australia which can detect Covid-19 antibodies ...
Scientists demonstrate powdered vaccine can break the cold chain
SCIENTISTS have taken a step forward in breaking the so-called vaccine “cold chain” by creating a...
IChemE identifies vaccine production capabilities
ICHEME has compiled a list of manufacturing sites in the UK and Ireland that have the potential c...
BASF lends supercomputer to fight against Covid-19
BASF has been using its supercomputer to help identify molecules that might help in the fight aga...
IChemE can help to increase availability of Covid-19 treatment drugs
THE IChemE Covid-19 Response Team is supporting efforts to increase the availability of drugs tha...
AstraZeneca to begin manufacturing coronavirus vaccine candidate immediately
ASTRAZENECA is beginning to manufacture a coronavirus vaccine candidate, following a commitment f...
Vaccine manufacturing centre to be scaled up
THE Vaccines Manufacturing and Innovation Centre (VMIC) has received funding from the UK Governme...
Evonik spends €25m as part of API and intermediates manufacturing expansion
EVONIK is spending €25m (US$27.1m) on the first stage of a long-term project to increase contract...
CEPI invests US$338m in manufacturing a Covid-19 vaccine
THE Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is investing US$338m to develop and ma...
Covid-19 vaccine could be ready by year end, says AZ CEO
ASTRAZENECA says it could begin production of a vaccine for Covid-19 by the end of the year after...
IChemE volunteers identify areas of focus to help fight pandemic
ICHEME’S volunteer Covid-19 Response Team has divided into distinct workstreams, including on dia...
Wood wins GSK contracts
WOOD has been appointed GSK’s capital delivery partner for the pharmaceutical company’s Ware site...
UK launches vaccine taskforce to co-ordinate scaleup
THE UK Government has today announced the formation of a new taskforce that will help prepare the...
Life sciences companies collaborate to accelerate coronavirus response
A CONSORTIUM of life sciences companies including GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Pfizer, is c...
GSK efforts against coronavirus include US$10m to response fund
BRITISH multinational pharma company GSK is helping to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, including...
IChemE offers support to UK Government in response to coronavirus crisis
THE INSTITUTION of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) has written to the UK Government to offer support ...
IChemE SIG calls on members for supply support in response to coronavirus
ICHEME’s Pharma Special Interest Group (SIG) has called for members to come forward and help supp...
Companies repurpose to produce hand sanitiser
IN the fight against the spread of coronavirus, chemical companies and distilleries are stepping ...
Coronavirus: the push to produce a vaccine
WITH more than 75,000 cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection having killed more than 2,0...
Removing pharmaceutical pollutants from wastewater
NOURYON and Van Remmen UV Technology have teamed up to combine their technologies to remove pharm...
Food, fuel and drug supplies at no-deal Brexit risk, Government warns
THE UK Government has warned in a document it has been forced to disclose that a no-deal Brexit c...
Blast at Indian pharmaceutical plant injures 16
A REACTOR exploded at a pharmaceutical plant in India injuring 16 workers, according to reports.
WHP wins contract for new UK vaccine centre
ENGINEERING contractor WHP has won a contract to help design the UK’s Vaccines Manufacturing Inno...
Using AI to improve drug development
SCIENCE and technology company Merck is collaborating with Iktos to use Iktos’ artificial intelli...
Novel method for creating sequence-defined polymers
RESEARCHERS at Imperial College London, UK have developed a new class of multifunctional sequence...
GSK and Pfizer merge consumer healthcare businesses
GSK and Pfizer are merging their consumer healthcare businesses in a move that will create a mark...
Novel ‘organ-on-a-chip’ device
RESEARCHERS led by the University of Cambridge, UK have developed a three-dimensional (3D) ‘organ...
Bayer to sell businesses and cut 12,000 jobs
BAYER, the German multinational pharmaceutical and life sciences company, has announced plans to ...
Caltech chemical engineer Frances Arnold wins Nobel Prize
CHEMICAL engineer Frances Arnold has been awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her pione...
Novartis plans job cuts
NOVARTIS, the pharmaceuticals group, has announced plans to cut more than 2,000 jobs in the UK an...
An improved methane to syngas catalyst
RESEARCHERS at the Institute of Catalysis at Hokkaido University, Japan, have created an improved...
Transforming medicines manufacturing
IN a collaboration between Imperial College London, University College London (UCL), and global p...
New packaging: cheap and slippery
FANS of fast food know how tricky it is trying to squeeze out the last drops of ketchup from thos...
Lab-on-a-chip moves droplets via sound waves
A LAB-ON-A-CHIP that can allow droplets to ‘surf’ across oil using acoustic waves has been develo...
Nanoparticles for non-invasive scar detection
NANOPARTICLES which emit fluorescent signals in the presence of scar cells could be used for non-...
Colour-changing fibres indicate pressure in compression bandages
FIBRES that change colour when stretched have been integrated into compression bandages, which wi...
Epilepsy drug created from greener catalytic process
A NEW method has been developed for drug production that avoids the use of expensive precious met...
Top ten bio-based chemicals for UK economic growth
A REPORT from the Lignocellulosic Biorefinery Network (LBNet) has identified ten biochemicals whe...
Continuous crystallisation workflow enables high precision manufacturing of pharmaceuticals
A WORKFLOW has been developed that allows for high precision manufacturing of active pharmaceutic...
Takeda and Shire agree £46bn takeover
TAKEDA PHARMACEUTICAL has agreed to buy Shire for £46bn (US$62bn) as it seeks to create a global ...
Caffeine used as a catalyst to make gels for drug delivery
RESEARCHERS looking for a safe catalyst to use when creating gels for drug delivery have found th...
Shire recommends Takeda takeover offer
SHIRE has opened the door to a £46bn (US$64bn) takeover bid from Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical.
P&G agrees to buy Merck’s consumer healthcare business
PROCTER & GAMBLE has agreed to buy German drugmaker Merck’s consumer healthcare unit for €3.4bn (...
Takeda mulls bid for Shire
JAPAN’S Takeda Pharmaceutical has revealed it is considering a bid for Ireland’s Shire as it seek...
GSK buys Novartis out of consumer healthcare venture
GSK will pay US$13bn to take full control of its consumer healthcare venture with Novartis.
Distinguished chemical engineers join QE Prize panel
TWO chemical engineers - Jinghai Li and Raghunath Anant Mashelkar – have joined the judging panel...
Hybrid cells bridge the gap between biological and artificial cells
LIVING and non-living components have been combined using microfluidics to create a hybrid cell c...
Monitoring tablet production with near-infrared chemical imaging
A STUDY has shown that near-infrared chemical imaging (NIR CI) can be used for monitoring the mix...
Carbon nanotubes could make carbon-zero fuels cheaper than fossil fuels
A BREAKTHROUGH has been made in the manufacturing of carbon nanotube membranes which will lead to...
Three killed in chemicals blast at Indian industrial site
AT least three people are dead after an explosion in a chemical factory in the Maharashtra Indust...
Printed hydrogel makes drug testing more efficient
ENGINEERS have devised a way to make drug testing more efficient and affordable. The new drug dis...
3D printing of living cells using in-air microfluidics
A TECHNIQUE has been developed that allows two fluids to be combined mid-air by using two jets of...
Using LEGO bricks for microfluidics
RESEARCHERS at MIT have simplified the process of creating microfluidics prototypes by building t...
New method weeds out flipping drugs
A NEW method has been developed to help drug developers weed out compounds that could potentially...
Roche buys Ignyta for US$1.7bn
ROCHE has agreed a deal to buy oncology drug company Ignyta for US$27/share, a total of US$1.7bn.
Teva to cut 14,000 jobs worldwide
TEVA PHARAMACEUTICAL INDUSTRIES is to cut 14,000 jobs, more than a quarter of its workforce, as p...
Sheffield plans continuous powder processing plant
THE UNIVERSITY of Sheffield plans to launch the UK’s first continuous powder processing plant, wh...
A microbial ‘tape recorder’
BACTERIAL cells that work as a “tape recorder”, by recording environmental interactions and time-...
Bioengineering opportunities and risks
MAJOR issues that could face industry, society and the environment as a result of the growing bio...
New continuous cell therapy bioprocess
A COATING that allows the first ever continuous production of cells could remove a significant bo...
Patrick Vallance is named UK chief scientific adviser
THE UK government has announced that it has appointed Patrick Vallance as its chief scientific ad...
Industrial fellowship for ‘living medicine’ cancer treatment
AN ICHEME Associate Member has won a prestigious funding award for her work on a cancer treatment...
Vapour jet printing personalised medicines
RESEARCHERS at the University of Michigan have developed vapour jet printing technology, usually ...
Engineering better healthcare
AN ENGINEERING approach towards designing and managing complex systems could transform health and...
Singapore pharma innovation programme launched
A MEMORANDUM of understanding between three industry giants and Singapore’s public sector was sig...
Cyborg bacteria make chemicals from sunlight
“CYBORG” bacteria covered in tiny solar panels have been demonstrated to produce acetic acid from...
Making magic
BIOSYNTHESIS of psilocybin, the psychoactive drug found in so-called “magic mushrooms”, has been ...
Fighting ageing with AI
AS FAR as humans go, doctor-turned-investor Gregory Bailey is pretty good at spotting patterns an...
Merck unsure of cyberattack impact
MERCK & Co has said that it still does not yet know the full impact of the NotPetya cyberattack, ...
Medical adhesive inspired by slugs
AN ADHESIVE inspired by a species of slug has been described by researchers, who say it adheres f...
New asymmetric synthesis method
A HIGHLY enantioselective method for the decarboxylative halogenation of carboxylic acids has bee...
Spinning silkworm cocoons
BIOCOMPATIBLE, biodegradable silk cocoons capable of being accurately spun on a nano-scale could ...
Science sans frontières
PRICE often limits training and research opportunities in developing countries – but researchers ...
