This week on “The Friday Brief” … We had the opportunity to tour Hovione’s facility in East Windsor, NJ. There, the company has been ramping up to GMP operations at one of the buildings on its campus. This includes two new PSD-3 scale spray dryers. Look for more next week from our visit.

Also, at contractpharma.com, we’ve got an exclusive interview from DCAT Week in March with Hovione’s David Basile. All worth checking out.

We also have launched a new service for you, our audience. Contract Pharma Stream is a single-login, curated platform where you can access our webinar content anytime, anywhere. You register once—you get the keys to it all. This includes our next webinar focusing on a digital workflow strategy for CDMO growth, with experts from Ecolab, next Wednesday.

With all that going on, yes, there has been some other news. Lilly is acquiring Ajax Therapeutics, Chiesi Group has agreed to acquire KalVista, and Gilead completed its acquisition of Arcellx. Thermo Fisher has opened its flagship U.S. Bioprocess Design Center in Massachusetts. Cellares and Cabaletta Bio signed a 10-year agreement for commercial supply of Cabaletta’s investigational CAR-T therapy for autoimmune diseases.

And this last one, we found especially interesting. Laguna Diagnostics has gotten FDA Breakthrough Device status for its mRNA Gene Biomarker Test. What Laguna says this blood-based test can do is help differentiate schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder diagnoses. Timelines for these diagnoses can stretch to years—and the FDA says this test may provide objective data much faster.

Another busy week in pharma! Happy first day of May and we will see you next week on “The Friday Brief.”