Today's Top Stories | By George Miller |  Comment |  Forward | < a href="http://links.mkt1985.com/ctt?kn=57&ms=MzU4NTc4OAS2&r=MjM2NzI3MjAzMjcS1&b=0&j=MTEzMTQyOTAwS0&mt=1&rt=0" name="api_addthis_com_oexchange_YTN77QNZ4DGiismfTiwGQ" > Twitter |  Facebook |  LinkedIn | Merck ($MRK) has almost single-handedly snatched the top spot for monthly job cuts from the U.S. government, ending a 7-month streak by the public-sector behemoth. U.S. job cuts overall jumped a frightening 60% in July. The retail sector joined pharma and the government in the top three. Merck helped push pharma to the July job-cuts apex of 13,493; the drugmaker accounts for 13,000 of that total, resulting from its previously announced multi-year force reduction. No breakdown of manufacturing versus other types of pharma jobs was available. By contrast, pharma's cousin, the chemical industry, dropped just one-tenth the number of jobs as pharma, making it the ninth largest jobs-cutter in July. The healthcare/products sector, which includes medical devices, occupies the sixth spot with 5,193 cuts. "What may be most worrisome is that the heaviest layoffs occurred in industries that have enjoyed relatively low job-cut levels, including pharmaceuticals, computer and retail," says John Challenger, CEO, in the report. Adding to the pharma darkness is last week's Bureau of Labor Statistics report that the U.S. economy added 117,000 jobs in July and that the unemployment rate fell one-tenth of a percent to 9.1%. The unemployment drop, however, was driven by people leaving the labor force, so it's more representative of economic bad news that coincides with the good news of the added jobs. Meanwhile, in India, pharma is hiring, according to the Economic Times. In fact, it's been seeing an upswing over the past four years with a growth of 13% to 17%. - here's the CGC report
- here's the Economic Times article Related Articles:
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Healthcare changes coupled with increasing and changing regulatory requirements are among factors accelerating the pace of supply chain change among pharma, biotech and medical device companies. Many are turning to new technology to keep up, according to UPS's fourth annual Pain in the Supply Chain report. Through phone surveys this spring of nearly 250 supply chain execs in the U.S., Europe and Asia (compared with 150 U.S.-only respondents in the 2010 report), UPS is seeing "a complete rethinking of supply chains," says John Menna, director for healthcare strategy, in a phone interview. Supply chain executives are looking for "step changes, not incremental improvements. They have an increasing appetite to do things differently." Menna's observation of the accelerating pace of change comes not just from respondent answers to survey questions, but also from the types of analyses they undertake and the changes they're making now, he says. The survey finds 86% of respondents saying they will turn to new technologies as an investment strategy within the next three to 5 years, with 72% saying they have made such investments in the last 18 months. "They're looking at tracking technologies," says Menna, "radio frequency identification tags, for example, and integration of corporate systems with UPS tracking systems." The respondent company universe is roughly a two to one mix of pharma/biotech companies and medical device companies, respectively. Also on the tech shopping list: sensing devices, warehouse management software and order-to-cash systems. "They're looking for anything that will make it easier for product ordering, as well as newer functions for supply chain planning," he says. On the non-tech side, the survey finds changes in distribution channels and models a tactic for achieving greater efficiencies. Some 63% of pharma/biotech respondents say they've used this strategy--including more direct shipments to providers, retailers and patients, as well as increased use of wholesalers and distributors--over the past 18 months. And 81% say they plan to do so in the next three to 5 years. One distribution model change is a form of logistics handover, in which a drugmaker relinquishes post-manufacturing ops to a logistics provider. One example is the growing collaboration between Merck and UPS. Others involve DHL's Exel unit, which has relationships with Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer. - here's the release
- see the report (pdf) Related Articles:
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Survey: Costs, reform, compliance are chief supply chain concerns Read more about: Ups Supply Chain
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Roche Carolina has returned money given by the state of South Carolina to keep open its 300,000-square-foot facility in Florence. The drugmaker announced late last year that it might close the plant. But it was apparently swayed by a $500,000 state incentive and said in June that it would keep the plant open for "at least a few more years," according to SCnow.com. But Roche returned the money late last week, and officials hope the funds can be used elsewhere (or by Florence itself in the future). The plant, which employs about 300, manufactures the active ingredients for Tamiflu and Xeloda, a chemotherapy drug. The FDA listed Tamiflu for oral suspension in short supply last month and in January. And in Boulder, CO, last week, International Chemical Investors Group said it plans to acquire Roche Colorado, which includes a pharma production facility. Some 265 development and manufacturing personnel staff the site, which Roche bought in 1994. ICIG will operate the site as part of its Corden Pharma unit. Under terms of the transaction, Corden will supply Roche with APIs currently made at the facility. It aims to meet the drugmaker's demand for "commercial scale peptides and other medicinal compounds," according to the Boulder County Business Report. The workforce is expected to remain intact. - see the SC story
- here's the Boulder story Related Articles:
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Sustainability-minded GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) is simultaneously testing two technologies to enhance water use in an API manufacturing operation. The drug giant has combined wireless networking with pressure and flow transmitters at its plant in Cork, Ireland. The transmitters from Emerson Process Management's Smart Wireless platform are attached to two new storage tanks connected with the facility's water system. The tanks were added when the API operation outgrew its water storage facility. Via the new tanks, the transmitters monitor data throughout the plant and send it to GSK engineers. In addition to studying water usage, the engineers are testing the wireless technology in hopes of being able to create a network that allows for additional process instrumentation, according to an Emerson Process Management case study. The network currently has 10 Smart Wireless devices: 6 pressure transmitters, two flow transmitters and two level transmitters. Flow data are transmitted every 30 seconds and pressure and level data every 300 seconds to a Smart Wireless Gateway on the roof of the plant's control room building. The wireless system is integrated with GSK's DeltaV utility-control automation system, where it can be accessed by plant operators. - here's the case study Special Report: The 12 greenest companies in biopharma Related Articles:
GSK furthers pharma's greening
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Read more about: API, Glaxosmithkline, Sustainability, Environmental Friendliness
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| By George Miller | Comment | Forward | < a href="http://links.mkt1985.com/ctt?kn=68&ms=MzU4NTc4OAS2&r=MjM2NzI3MjAzMjcS1&b=0&j=MTEzMTQyOTAwS0&mt=1&rt=0" name="api_addthis_com_oexchange_kQnEMrQuLIVGorwZr6yQg" >Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Nonprofit NSF International is launching the NSF Reference Standards Program, through which it will provide chemical reference standards as a service to drugmakers. The new program augments the documentary standards service it already provides. The chemical reference standards, which are used for comparisons that demonstrate the identity, purity, quality and strength of the subject drugs and ingredients, will be traceable to official U.S. and European pharmacopeial standards, according to an announcement. The program will focus on developing reference standards that are in demand by global customers in the pharma and health supplement industries, says Steven Lane, the program's general manager, in an email. One indication of the global scope of the service is the announcement's availability in Chinese as well as English. Lane says that reference standard pricing will be "favorable" relative to other U.S. and European pharmacopeial standards. Among characteristics of the NSF reference standards: They will be verified to conform to FDA and European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare regulatory requirements; produced and tested in compliance with current good manufacturing practices; and tested independently by a minimum of three collaborating laboratories. - here's the announcement Read more about: GMP, NSF International, chemical reference standards
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