Sale of Organon facility in Oss may avert closure

pharmafile | February 15, 2011 | News story | Manufacturing and Production Merck & Co, Netherlands, Oss 

The fate of an Organon manufacturing and R&D facility in the Netherlands, currently under threat of closure by parent company Merck & Co, was due to be decided this week, but an offer to purchase the unit could delay proceedings.

Dutch biotechnology Pantarhei Bioscience confirmed yesterday it is interested in purchasing all the women’s health operations at the site in Oss – including R&D, toxicology, production and most of the currently marketed products in this category.

That is believed to account for a large proportion of the threatened operations, given Organon’s strong focus on hormonal therapies.

Pantarhei, which is run by former Organon director of reproductive medicine R&D Herjan Coelingh Bennink, has said it plans to fund the purchase with the help of private equity backing, and that its own development programmes in female health and endocrine cancers would fit neatly with the former Organon’s portfolio.

Most of the Dutch firm’s products are in phase II development, so would not be expected to reach the market for three to five years.

Last year Merck, which operates as MSD in Europe, announced the closure of the plant and the loss of around 2,175 jobs, equivalent to around 50% of Organon’s total workforce and split just about evenly between manufacturing and R&D.

What followed was months of demonstrations and threatened industrial action, which culminated in a decision last September by MSD to postpone the closure in order to look into other possibilities, including a facility sale.

Organon was taken over by Schering-Plough in 2007 and subsequently came under MSD’s control in 2009. The Oss site was one of a number of facilities worldwide – and three in the Netherlands – affected by sweeping job cuts announced by Merck in July 2010.

Meanwhile, rumours have also been circulating in the Dutch press that Japanese drugmaker Takeda may also be preparing to make a bid for the unit.

Phil Taylor

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