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Welcome to Endpoints News ’ manufacturing briefs, where we bring you essential news on new builds, collaborations, recalls and more. Pfizer is laying off employees across its manufacturing facilities in Ireland, including at Grange Castle, Ringaskiddy and Newbridge. The workforce cuts will start in the last quarter of this year and will continue into next year, the company confirmed to Endpoints News in an email. No further details were given. Baxter Pharmaceuticals has closed it North Cove facility in Marion, NC, due to Hurricane Helene causing “excessive” rain and flooding damage. The company is working to get the site back up and running, and its utilizing the rest of its manufacturing network to try and mitigate any potential supply issues. While the full impact of the site closure has yet to be seen, this will have a “negative” impact on the company’s annual revenue, Baxter said in a release on Sunday. Recipharm announced on Thursday it’s expanding its clinical and commercial pharmaceutical development and manufacturing offerings. The CDMO is expanding its small molecule site in Bengaluru, India, by adding a lab for developing sterile products. The company has also added a manufacturing line at its Wasserburg, Germany, site and has expanded its site in Kaysersberg, France. No financial details were disclosed. Recipharm also partnered with US-based CDMO Exela Pharma Sciences this week, to expand sterile manufacturing offerings in the US, the company said on Tuesday. The new partnership will give Recipharm access to Exela’s factory in Lenoir, NC, which houses abilities in manufacturing sterile injectables in vials and pre-filled syringes. India-based CDMO Piramal Pharma Solutions is investing $80 million to expand its sterile injectable facility in Lexington, KY, the company said on Monday. The expansion will add 24,000 square feet of capacity, including a new laboratory and manufacturing space. The expansion is anticipated to be finished in the first quarter of 2027. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-backed TerraPower Isotopes is now commercially producing the radioisotope Actinium-225 , the company announced on Tuesday. California-based SK pharmteco is injecting $260 million to build a new small molecule and peptide manufacturing facility in Sejong, South Korea, the company said on Sunday. The 135,800 square-foot facility will house R&D facilities as well as clinical and commercial manufacturing capabilities. Operations are anticipated to start in late 2026. Radioisotope producer Nusano has raised over $115 million in a Series C funding round, the company said on Tuesday. The raise will be used to help the company launch new products, including non-carrier-added lutetium-177 and actinium-225. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals has been awarded a $69 million contract from the US Department of Health and Human Services, according to a Monday announcement. Under the new contract, BioCryst will supply up to 95,625 doses of its flu vaccine, Rapivab, to the US government’s national stockpile over five years. Cell therapy CDMO Excellos has been chosen by Galapagos to make its CAR-T cell therapy asset, dubbed GLPG5101, for a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in patients with relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Excellos will make the candidate at its site in San Diego, CA, according to the Tuesday press release. Ferring Pharmaceuticals has opened a new 25,000 square-meter manufacturing site in Kuopio, Finland, which will make drug substances for its gene therapy Adstiladrin, a treatment for patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, the company said on Thursday. Ginkgo Bioworks and Virica Biotech are partnering to reduce the cost of manufacturing gene therapies, the companies said on Thursday. Both companies are providing and integrating their gene therapy manufacturing platforms to offer a combined service to customers.

The California-based drugmaker is laying off 20 employees in California and Colorado, some of whom work remotely. With dwindling funds after a prior snub from the FDA, ImmunityBio’s journey to bag approval for its Merck-rivaling bladder cancer drug Anktiva wasn’t easy. Now, a few months after finally crossing the FDA finish line, the California-based drugmaker is turning to layoffs to save costs.The company is trimming its workforce by 20 staffers at the end of the month across several California offices and one in Colorado, according to state Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices.Some of the impacted workers work remotely such as one technical analyst in Florida, the company’s HR team wrote in a notice to Florida officials. Positions on the chopping block include managers in quality control and supply chain management, an associate director of procurement and strategic sourcing, IT support and other manufacturing positions. All layoffs will be effective on Oct. 29.ImmunityBio in its notice to the impacted state’s governors said the moves were to “better align operations to support the Company’s ongoing business strategy, reduce redundancies, and drive financial efficiencies.” The company has no comment at this time, a spokesperson said.   The downsizing comes as ImmunityBio’s Anktiva, used alongside Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), is challenging Merck’s Keytruda and Ferring Pharmaceuticals’ Adstiladrin gene therapy in BCG-unresponsive non-muscle invasive bladder cancer with carcinoma in situ. Shortly after an FDA approval in April, ImmunityBio partnered with the Serum Institute of India to manufacture BCG globally amid an ongoing shortage. After securing $470 million in financing last year from its founder, renowned celebrity businessman and biotech entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong, and striking a $210 million royalty deal with Oberland Capital in January, a recent SEC filing revealed that the Anktiva maker is still strapped for cash.As of June 30, ImmunityBio had stacked up an accumulated deficit of $3.2 billion and had negative cash flow of $207.3 million from operations over the six months ending on that date. The situation likely calls for additional capital to commercialize its now approved product and to further fund the development and regulatory filings of other candidates, the company said in the filing.Still, the company thinks that its existing cash, future Anktiva sales and several other avenues can support it through at least the next 12 months based largely on Soon-Shiong’s “intent and ability to support our operations with additional funds, including loans from affiliated entities, as required.” However, without significant Anktiva sales or additional external funds, ImmunityBio may opt to delay or cut down on its operating or investment expenditures.“Because of the risk and uncertainties associated with the commercialization of our approved product and our other product candidates, we may need additional funds to meet our needs sooner than planned,” the company explained in the filing.Last year’s FDA complete response letter, which was blamed on contract manufacturing issues, left stock spiraling more than 50% and sent the company scrambling to refile while trying to bulk up a bank balance that had dipped to $43.5 million by the end of June 2023. The regulatory rejection came after the drugmaker backtracked on planned hirings of 300 employees in New York and instead let go of 38 staffers at the site due to “economic” reasons.