Hyaluron Contract Manufacturing (HCM) has been selected as a finalist for the 2007 Team Massachusetts Economic Impact Award.
HCM is one of five companies from the greater Boston area that is being considered for the prize based on its strong contribution to the state economy since 1 January 2006.
The firm, which specialises in aseptic manufacturing services, has experienced significant growth since last year, investing over $2.3m in facility expansion and creating nearly 40 new jobs.
Last October, the company applied for a patent on its Bubble-free filling technology designed to reduce or eliminate the bubble inside a pre-filled syringe.
In addition, HCM's future plans include the expansion of its current facility and the creation of several new jobs, in order to bring the total number of staff to 100 by the end of the year - the firm currently employs 85 people.
Meanwhile, Tepnel Research Products & Services has opened a new £4m analytical testing facility at a site in Livingston, Scotland and created 20 new jobs so far.
Tepnel already has laboratories and manufacturing operations in the UK, US and France, although the new facility has allowed it to consolidate its two other Scottish sites, in Edinburgh and Glasgow, into this one new location and improve efficiency, the firm said.
The expansion will also allow it to begin offering a number of new molecular services for the global biopharmaceutical market, which is worth around £24bn and is expected to experience double digit growth over the next few years.
The new capabilities include a high throughput single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping service; two offerings that involve enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and 2-D/3-D gel electrophoresis technologies; and a new immunoassay development service that will offer the development of regulatory compliant monoclonal and polyclonal bioassays.
The new facility has been part funded by Scottish Enterprise, the economic development agency for Scotland, which aims to encourage innovation in the country and help it to compete in business on an international level.
And last but not least, Eden Biodesign has penned its fourth manufacturing deal in seven weeks, with a new contract with Danish firm Borean Pharma announced this week.
The UK-based contract manufacturer has been selected by Borean to make preclinical quantities of its new anti-cancer drug candidate.
Borean's product, MBP-DC-SIGN, is one of Borean's drugs to be based on the Mannose-Binding protein (MBP) platform, which delivers a series of highly potent oncology therapeutics. According to the firm, MBP is the only scaffold that can induce complement-induced lysis.
The project is expected to complete early in 2008, the two companies said in a statement.
