Biopharma Demand Continues to Influence CMO Actions

At the end of the summer of 2018, contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) and contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) were continuing the trend of acquisitions and biopharmaceutical services expansions.

The following are a few developments in the CMO/CDMO market.

Mergers and acquisitions

Catalent reported on Aug. 14, 2018 the completion of its previously announced tender offer for all outstanding shares of Juniper Pharmaceuticals at $11.50 per share. As a result of the merger, Juniper will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Catalent. According to Catalent, the acquisition of Juniper expands and strengthens its offerings in formulation development, bioavailability solutions, and clinical-scale oral dose manufacturing, and complements its integrated global clinical and commercial supply network.

Juniper provides bioavailability enhancement for poorly soluble compounds, including nano-milling, spray drying, hot-melt extrusion, lipid-based drug delivery, and cGMP clinical manufacturing for potent and controlled substances. Catalent reports that it will continue to support Juniper’s Crinone (progesterone gel) franchise marketed by Merck KGaA outside of the United States (1).

Emergent BioSolutions announced on Aug. 9, 2018 that it has entered into an agreement to acquire PaxVax, a company focused on specialty vaccines that protect against existing and emerging infectious diseases, for an all-cash consideration of $270 million.

Emergent will also acquire European-based cGMP biologics manufacturing facilities from PaxVax as well as approximately 250 employees, including those in R&D, manufacturing, and commercial operations with a specialty salesforce.

Gaining these facilities will expand Emergent’s international operations and contract development and manufacturing ability, according to Emergent.

This transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including antitrust regulatory approval, and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2018 (2).

New facilities and services

SGS announced on Aug. 28, 2018 a new 200m2 laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland that will provide biopharmaceutical testing to respond to the growing need for biopharmaceutical studies during the early and late phase of characterization.

The new laboratory will complement the existing 800m2 facility and offer the new services for high order structure analysis of biologics, including circular dichroism, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, extrinsic and intrinsic fluorescence, analytical ultracentrifugation, size exclusion chromatography with multi-angle light scattering, dynamic light scattering, and differential scanning calorimetry.

“To fulfill regulatory requirements, the biopharmaceutical industry increasingly expects its contract service providers to offer comprehensive characterization capabilities from a single location,” said Luc-Alain Savoy, Managing Director SGS Life Sciences Geneva, in a press release.

“SGS is committed to investing in its network of laboratories to offer integrated solutions and adapt to its clients’ local and global needs” (3).

References

1. Catalent, “Catalent Completes Tender Offer For All Outstanding Shares Of Juniper Pharmaceuticals, Inc.,” Press Release, Aug. 14, 2018.
2. Emergent BioSolutions, “Emergent BioSolutions to Acquire Specialty Vaccines Company PaxVax,” Press Release, Aug. 9, 2018.
3. SGS, “SGS to Open New Biopharmaceutical Testing Laboratory in Geneva,” Press Release, Aug. 28, 2018.

Article Details

BioPharm International
Vol. 31, No. 9
September 2018
Page: 51

Citation

When referring to this article, please cite it as The Editors of BioPharm International, "Biopharma Demand Continues to Influence CMO Actions," BioPharm International 31 (9) 2018.