Patheon, a leading global provider of high-quality drug development and delivery solutions to the pharmaceutical and biopharma sectors, said Monday it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Agere Pharmaceuticals, a privately held CDMO, headquartered in Bend, Ore., that specializes in improving the absorption rate of medications (bioavailability).
Agere is a contract development marketing organization (CDMO) and a recognized leader in helping customers improve the delivery of their medications through fundamental science, solubilization expertise and solubilization technologies. It’s one of at least a dozen Bend-area ventures either founded by former Bend Research employees or based on technologies developed there.
The Bend facility is expected to serve as a solubility center of excellence and be part of Patheon’s pharmaceutical development services (PDS) operations. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
By combining Agere’s solubility expertise with Patheon’s large-scale global network of scientists, development and manufacturing capabilities, those customers seeking to improve drug absorption rates will have support from early development through commercialization.
“We see a growing need to offer customers an integrated, agnostic approach to address their development and drug delivery needs. Agere adds a new capability and allows us to provide customers with formulation expertise for solubility enhancement,” said Michael Lehmann, president, global pharmaceutical development services and executive vice president global sales and marketing.
“With this acquisition, we strengthen our number one pharmaceutical development services position with a solution that integrates scientific acumen and design automation.”
In the last year, Patheon has significantly expanded its capabilities through several key acquisitions, including the addition of a large-scale facility in Greenville, N.C.
Patheon’s PDS solutions offer a full spectrum of advanced scientific and preformulation services to quickly characterize drug substances, develop and implement laboratory methodologies, and generate the data to enable efficient investigational new drug filings.
With the addition of Agere’s solubility expertise, Patheon said it will be well positioned to compete in the growing low solubility market segment.
“We are excited about the opportunity to become a part of Patheon, a recognized leader in the industry and a company that shares our interest in providing outstanding service and support to customers,” shared Marshall Crew, Ph.D., president and CEO of Agere.
“Our team remains committed to the organization and is focused on implementing a strategy that will help customers address complex solubility issues at any stage of the development lifecycle.”
The companies said in their announcement that both Patheon and Agere have excellent track records with regulatory authorities and are widely recognized as leaders in quality. The completion of the transaction is subject to customary regulatory review.
Source: Patheon
