Genzyme to divest pharma intermediates business
pharmafile | February 8, 2011 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Cerezyme, Corden Pharma Switzerland, Corden Pharma group, Genzyme, International Chemical Investors Group, Sekisui Chemical Co, imiglucerase
Genzyme has agreed to sell off its pharmaceutical intermediates business to International Chemical Investors Group, a holding company which has been steadily buying up chemical and pharmaceutical plants since it was set up in 2004.
ICIG said it will buy “substantially all” of Genzyme’s pharmaceutical intermediates business, excluding a division focusing on drug delivery technologies, with the deal completing sometime in the first quarter of 2011.
At the heart of the deal is the transferral of ownership of Genzyme’s intermediates development and manufacturing unit in Liestal, Switzerland, which employs around 120 staff.
ICIG has agreed to offer employment to the employees and maintain operations at the site, which focuses on the production of synthetic lipids, amino acid derivatives and peptides, as well as offering contract manufacturing services.
ICIG will supply Genzyme’s investigational Gaucher disease drug eliglustat tartrate, currently made at Liestal and in phase III testing, for a period of five years. It will also supply materials needed for the manufacture of some other Genzyme drug candidates, including neo-GAA for Pompe disease.
The acquired pharmaceutical intermediates business will be renamed Corden Pharma Switzerland and will operate as part of ICIG’s pharmaceutical business within the Corden Pharma group.
In the last couple of years ICIG has snapped up plants formerly operated by Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, Mitsubishi (Miteni) and Albemarle – all of which now operate within 700 million-euro ($970m) unit Corden Pharma. Its strategy is to take over mid-sized assets which are considered non-core by their owners and can be acquired at “attractive” prices.
“Financial terms are not material to Genzyme and were not disclosed,” said Genzyme, which itself seems to be on the verge of being acquired by Sanofi-Aventis.
Genzyme diagnostics sale
Genzyme also said it has completed the previously-announced sale of its diagnostic products business to Japan’s Sekisui Chemical Co for $265 million, part of its strategy to focus on its core therapeutics business.
The diagnostics unit employs around 575 staff, including about 100 based at its Framingham campus, and the majority of these have been offered positions within Sekisui. Sekisui also entered into an agreement to supply Genzyme with enzymes needed for the production of its Gaucher disease treatment Cerezyme (imiglucerase).
Phil Taylor
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