Benoit Opsomer, vice-president and head of bioprocessing, Asia Pacific, Merck Life Science, explains how recent targeted CDMO buyouts put the German group in pole position with services across the mRNA value chain, even as it supports global players such as BioNTech. Striking multi-country expansion of manufacturing footprint, including in China, is also underway amid rising demand for biopharma single-use assemblies.

Benoit Opsomer, vice-president and head of bioprocessing, Asia Pacific, Merck Life Science, tells Scrip in an interview how recent targeted CDMO buyouts put the German group in pole position with services across the mRNA value chain, even as it supports global players such as BioNTech. Striking multi-country expansion of manufacturing footprint, including in China, is also underway amid rising demand for biopharma single-use assemblies.

Pfizer claims two former employees stole trade secrets relating to its diabetes-obesity GLP-1 receptor agonist research program for their startup Regor Therapeutics. Regor’s $1.5bn deal with Lilly further spurred Pfizer’s concerns.

Pfizer alleges its associate director of statistics transferred 12,000 files from her company laptop ahead of move to Xencor. Company seeks a temporary restraining order to prevent her from disclosing confidential information, including information on Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine and monoclonal antibodies for treatment of cancer.