Angel Bio plans joint venture with Russian drugmaker
pharmafile | October 18, 2011 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |Â Â Angel Biotechnology, Materia Medica, Russia, biologicsÂ
UK contract manufacturing organisation Angel Biotechnology has agreed to set up a joint venture with Russian counterpart Materia Medica Holding that could lead to the construction of additional manufacturing capacity at Angel’s Cramlington site.
The news beats against the current trend of drugmakers investing manufacturing resources into the Russian market, and will see a Russian drugmaker making a long-term commitment to manufacture some of its products in the UK for sale in Eastern European markets.
Under the proposed joint venture, Angel will make a minimum of seven biological products for Materia Medica at the Cramlington site over the next three to five years. The two companies already have a working relationship, with Angel making certain antibodies for Materia Medica under contracts signed in 2007, 2009 and 2010, but the JV will cement that relationship.
“Through the formation of this joint venture company, we expect to move into a secure, long term supply agreement with Angel for the manufacture of advanced biologicals that form the core of our business”, commented Materia Medica’s general director Prof. Oleg Epstein.
It is anticipated that it will be owned 51% Materia Medica and 49% by Angel, with by the Russian company funding the capital investment in the project and start-up costs for new projects. Angel will cover the ongoing costs of running the unit and will bill the JV for its use, while the two companies will share profits from the JV in proportion to their shareholdings.
Analysts have estimated that the JV could bring around £10 million in additional revenues to Angel in the first few years of operation.
To accommodate that workload the CMO will increase the size of the GMP facility at Cramlington that is currently in the process of being re-commissioned in order to set up a dedicated area for manufacturing Materia Medica products. Angel will also allocate capacity at its non-GMP development laboratory to the project.
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