Colorcon buys French excipients specialist
pharmafile | April 30, 2010 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |Â Â Colorcon, Ethypharm, NP Pharm, contract manufacturing, excipientsÂ
US-based Colorcon has acquired excipient specialist NP Pharm, a division of French drugmaker Ethypharm, in order to expand its product portfolio in the pharmaceutical and nutritional markets.
NP Pharm had a turnover of $5 million last year and employs around 20 people. It specialises in excipients used for solid dosage forms, including sugar spheres and microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) pellets which are used in tablet cores and capsule products, particularly those which are based on multi-particulate drug delivery systems.
In a statement, Colorcon said the addition of NP Pharm’s sugar spheres – sold under the Suglets brand – is complementary to its own SureSpheres product line and barrier membrane systems for multi-particulates.
Sugar spheres are coated with active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) by pharmaceutical manufacturers, generally using a binder such as povidone. The aim is to have a uniform shape in the pellets, which makes the API content of the dosage unit more uniform.
Colorcon said the acquisition also gives it a manufacturing facility for sugar sphere in Europe, based at Bazainville in France, to complement its production capacity in the US.
NP Pharm also has a proprietary drug delivery technology (NPTab) for low-dose tablets made by direct compression, and various other product lines such as povidone, crospovidone, and biodegradable polymers.
Colorcon chief executive William Motzer said that the deal would “leverage our global distribution, technical service and sales infrastructure”, as well as boosting the company’s product range.
Meanwhile, Ethypharm’s exit from the excipient business means that it can focus on its core business of developing products based on its range drug delivery platforms, both on its own and with its pharmaceutical partners.
The firm’s recently-appointed chief executive Hugues Lecat said: “This divestiture will enable us to go on investing in the growth of Ethypharm.
“Ethypharm will continue to invest in its R&D sites, notably that of Grand Quevilly, France, our most recent state-of-the-art manufacturing plant, in which we have invested over 15 million euros over the last two years.”
The terms of the NP Pharm acquisition have not been disclosed.
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