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How Biotech Firms Kept Raw Material Shortages From Affecting Patients During Pandemic

 
• By Bowman Cox

Biogen, Amgen, Lilly and Genentech experts shared tales of impending stockouts, particularly for single-use assemblies, filters and resins, and some of the measures they took to prevent them from causing drug shortages.

Cleanroom worker
finding solutions to pandemic raw material supply gaps • Source: Alamy

Beset by extreme pressure on their supply chains during the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, major biopharmaceutical companies had to get creative to find enough quality raw materials like filters, chromatography resins and single-use systems to keep manufacturing.

The situation got so bad last year that some companies were looking into qualifying their single-use plastic bioreactors for reuse

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More from Manufacturing

US FDA’s Expanded Surprise Foreign Inspections: Impact And Enforcement Hoops

 
• By Anju Ghangurde

As the US FDA expands unannounced foreign inspections building on pilots in India and China, experts expect higher scrutiny of overseas sites and perhaps even an industry shakeout in the longer term, though staffing and enforcement challenges could slow things down.

Pharma Industry Argues Tax, Other Incentives Better Than Tariffs

 
• By Jessica Merrill

Pharmaceutical industry organizations offered alternatives to tariffs that could maintain a secure domestic supply chain in public comments filed in response to a federal 232 investigation.

US FDA Expands Surprise Foreign Inspections But Loses Associate Commissioner Michael Rogers

 
• By Sue Sutter

Commissioner Martin Makary’s repeated characterization of foreign facilities as being subject to lower standards than domestic counterparts may have contributed to Rogers’ decision to retire as head of the recently formed Office of Inspections and Investigations.

Pharma Predicts Modest Tariff Impact, Depending On What Comes Next

 
• By Jessica Merrill

Drugmakers are not expecting a big financial hit from tariffs for now, but a report commissioned by the industry trade association PhRMA suggests a potentially steep cost for pharma-sector tariffs.

More from Compliance

Switzerland Simplifies Imports Of Unauthorized Drugs To Tackle Drug Shortages

 
• By Eliza Slawther

Swiss authorities have introduced temporary measures that will make it easier for health care professionals to import medicines that are either not authorized or not available in Switzerland, which will particularly benefit pediatric drugs, in light of ongoing shortages.

Aragen’s CEO Says NIH Funding Cut Means Less R&D Money, And Tariffs Would Add To Woes

 
• By Vibha Ravi

Aragen’s CEO Manni Kantipudi, who is keenly watching the Trump Administration’s moves on pharma tariffs, discusses funding cuts at the National Institutes of Health, big pharma’s US onshoring moves, and talks with the Indian government to solve intellectual property challenges in an audio interview.

US FDA Retirements Continue Unabated With Drug Inspectorate Leaders, Former Chief Counsel

 
• By Sue Sutter and Derrick Gingery

Alonza Cruse, director of the Office of Human and Animal Drugs Inspectorate, and two other senior inspection officials are departing, along with Mark Raza, chief counsel from 2021 until January.