This Week in Chemical Engineering - Food, Pharmaceutical & Bioengineering Spotlight: August 5, 2019

Don't miss out on the latest business and technology news for chemical engineers, featuring select items in relation to Food, Pharmaceuticals & Bioengineering!

Pfizer considering merging off-patent drug business with Mylan

Pfizer is considering merging its off-patent business with Mylan, a maker of generic drugs, in a deal that could offer both companies a chance to reignite sales growth, according to unnamed persons familiar with the matter. An announcement could be made today if the companies reach an agreement.

Consortium unveils plans for bio-based protein biorefinery in Belgium

3F BIO of Scotland and nine other consortium partners will construct a pioneering integrated biorefinery facility in Ghent, Belgium, which will manufacture proteins made from low-cost sustainable feedstocks. Dubbed the PLNITUDE project, the collaboration's initial output capability is approximately 16,000 tons of food-quality protein per year.

Biotechnology innovations key to biosecurity, economic security

As biotechnology companies discover innovative ways to improve both medicine and agriculture, they must work to minimize risks resulting from those innovations. Because the economic security of countries worldwide is so closely aligned to biosecurity, it is increasingly important for companies involved in this sort of research to work with regulators and each other, writes John Cumbers, founder and CEO of SynBioBeta.

ElevateBio, Mass. General partner to develop cell, gene therapies

ElevateBio and Massachusetts General Hospital have entered a 10-year collaboration to develop new oncologic cell and gene therapies. Mass. General will be allowed use of ElevateBio's manufacturing center in Waltham, Mass., in return for investing a confidential amount in the biotech firm.

FDA committee recommends Boehringer's nintedanib for approval

Boehringer Ingelheim's Ofev, or nintedanib, indicated as a treatment for systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease, received a positive opinion from the FDA's Arthritis Advisory Committee recommending the treatment for the agency's approval. If approved, Ofev will become the first treatment to be commercialized for US patients with SSc-ILD.

Studies show two-drug HIV regimen noninferior to three-drug therapy

Two late-stage studies funded by ViiV Healthcare and GlaxoSmithKline compared the two-drug HIV regimen of dolutegravir plus Dovato, or lamivudine, to the three-drug treatment of dolutegravir plus tenofovir and emtricitabine in treatment-naive patients and were able to establish that the two-drug regimen was non-inferior at 96 weeks. Data from the study were presented during the International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science.

EU scientists seek reconsideration on plant gene-editing law

European scientists from 126 research institutes have signed an open statement asking members of the newly elected European Parliament and European Commission to reconsider the current restrictions regarding genome editing technology after the European Court of Justice ruled last year that plants grown with the use of gene editing should be considered genetically modified organisms.