Editor’s Take: Not only did acquisitions dominate the week, but expansions and new facilities also continued to open.

This week on “The Friday Brief” … a banner week for acquisitions. GE HealthCare is acquiring Sofie Biosciences, establishing a U.S. footprint in the radiopharmaceutical supply chain. Shionogi is absorbing IntraBio, which just got an FDA approval for Aqneursa for treatment of ataxia.

Ofichem is expanding its U.S. CDMO presence by acquiring Kinentia Biosciences. AmyriAD Therapeutics is acquiring Recognify Life Sciences and its lead candidate in cognition in central nervous system disorders.

Repligen has completed its acquisition of BioLife Solutions, which focuses on services for the cell and gene therapy market. Biomapas acquired Pinnaxis, a pharmacovigilance technology and consulting company.

Elsewhere, Flamma agreed to acquire Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals Italy, an API manufacturing facility. And not quite an acquisition, but Upperton launched a new brand identity as it evolves into a specialist, end-to-end CDMO.

Not Just Acquisitions

Switching gears, major pharma companies continue to follow through on pledges to invest. AstraZeneca opened a new strategic R&D center in Cambridge, Mass. (By the way, don’t forget—that’s the location of our newly announced Contract Pharma Bio Outsourcing Conference next April.) Bayer, on the other hand, will invest more than $2 billion in a new manufacturing site in Ohio.

Some quick hits: Sterling Pharma is doubling its UK bioconjugation capacity with a new GMP suite. Piramal Pharma opened a new microbiology lab in Kentucky. Ritedose opened a $17 million cGMP lab in South Carolina. Agilent has expanded its oligonucleotide manufacturing in Boulder, Colo. And Curia is investing $28 million to expand its sterile API manufacturing capabilities in Spain.

Finally, in partnerships, CSL and Alentis are joining to commercialize a treatment for rare kidney, liver, and other diseases. And Cognizant is extending its pact with Gilead for five years, planning to apply agentic AI to Gilead’s DevOps capabilities.

Believe it or not, we have more to read from a very busy week at contractpharma.com. To get the latest as it happens, don’t forget to sign up for our e-mail newsletters.

We’ll see you next week, on The Friday Brief.