Recipharm, a Swedish CDMO, announced a deal that will land the company its first facility in the U.S. with the purchase of Kemwell operations in America, Sweden and India.
The announcement Monday falls in the wake of Recipharm’s news last week that it is paying $102 million for a 72% stake in India’s Nitin Lifesciences.
The $205 million (SEK 1.7 billion) deal with Kemwell, which also is an India-based manufacturer, is structured in two parts. The first is for Recipharm to spend $85 million for Kemwell’s drug development business located in Research Triangle Park, NC, and other operations in Sweden. That’s supposed to close by the middle of this year.
The second part of the deal calls for Recipharm to spend $120 million for Kemwell’s India operations that include FDA-approved API manufacturing. It’s expected to close, pending Indian government approval, by the end of the year.
“These transactions represent a significant step in both the consolidation of the CDMO industry and the transformation of Recipharm into a global leader,” Thomas Eldered, Recipharm’s CEO, said in a statement. “We now have a U.S. footprint which we can use to further penetrate the world’s largest pharmaceutical market.”
Recipharm didn’t get Kemwell’s biopharma business as part of the deal, however, the Uppsala, Sweden-based company does have the right of first refusal if Kemwell decides to sell the unit.
By Joseph Keenan
Source: Fierce Pharma
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