Ajinomoto expands in bio with Althea acquisition
pharmafile | March 11, 2013 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Ajinomoto, althea
Japanese drugmaker Ajinomoto has agreed to acquire Althea Technologies, a provider of biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing services, for an estimated $175 million.
The move marks Ajinomoto’s first major expansion in the biologics contract development and manufacturing sector, and comes at a time when the company is also expanding in its traditional heartland of chemical active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and intermediate supply.
“In combining Ajinomoto’s experience in biotechnology, together with Althea’s sophisticated technology, experienced personnel, and expertise in cGMP manufacturing, we aspire to expand our business for biopharmaceuticals manufacturing in the US market and strengthen our advanced biomedical businesses”, commented Ajinomoto’s president and chief executive Masatoshi Ito.
The company, which has been building its own contract process development business for biologic drugs on the back of its Corynex protein expression system, said it has aspirations to grow its biomedical business to around 30 billion yen (around $310m) by 2020.
The transaction is expected to close in early April, when Althea will become a fully consolidated subsidiary of Ajinomoto. The US firm provides fill-and-finish, biologics manufacturing, analytical development and stability testing services for biopharmaceutical companies.
Amino acid investment
Meanwhile, Ajinomoto has said it is doubling production capacity at a facility in Shanghai, China, which makes amino acids used in pharmaceutical and food applications via an investment of around 1.3 billion yen ($13.5m).
The expansion is scheduled to come on line in October 2013 and will serve a market that is currently around 30,000 tonnes a year but is expected to swell to 45,000 tonnes, driven in large part by growth in Asia, according to Ajinomoto.
The Japanese company already claims to be the biggest supplier in the amino acid sector and says it wants its market share to top 50% by 2020.
Ajinomoto is also in the latter stages of development of a new API and intermediate facility in Andhra Pradesh, India, which is due to start production later this year. The Indian facility is being run by Granules-Omnichem, a joint venture set up in 2011 by Granules India and Ajinomoto’s Omnichem unit.
Phil Taylor
Related Content
Eisai announces agreement to set up new gastrointestinal speciality company
Eisai (TYO: 4523) and Ajinomoto Co. (TYO: 2802) have announced an agreement to establish a …
