Amatsigroup Acquires Q-Biologicals and Strengthens Its Offering for International Pharmaceutical Groups

TOULOUSE, France--()--Amatsigroup, the leading French provider of services for the development of human and veterinary pharmaceutical products, today announces the acquisition of Q-Biologicals, a Belgian company that provides a comprehensive range of biologics process development and biomanufacturing services, from research to clinical phase, for customers in the biopharmaceutical industry.

Founded in 2011, Q-Biologicals is a provider of process development and biomanufacturing services, specializing in biologicals used in therapeutics, vaccines and diagnostics, such as recombinant proteins, antibodies, viruses and living cells. Spin-off from the Flemish Institute of Biotechnology (VIB) and Ghent University (UGent), Q-Biologicals is based in Ghent in Belgium. The company has 20 employees for a turnover of 4 million euros in 2015. It has a team of highly qualified professionals with more than 20 years of experience in biopharmaceutical process development. Since its foundation, Q-Biologicals has successfully delivered on almost 75 R&D projects and several clinical batch cGMP1 manufacturing projects.

As part of its growth and international expansion strategy, Amatsigroup intends to use this acquisition as a platform to expand its services in the biological segment. With revenue of €33 million in 2015 and a portfolio of more than 300 clients, Amatsigroup's development continues apace with four major acquisitions within the last two years.

With this new acquisition, Amatsigroup now has an integrated innovative offering for the development of new biologics through the AmatsiQBiologicals (Bioprocess – Biomanufacturing), AmatsiSEPS (Formulation Development), and AmatsiDBi (Sterile Manufacturing) facilities. Amatsigroup is now one of the few players in this sector to have a complete offering to conduct development of new biological molecules.

Alain Sainsot, Chairman of Amatsigroup, commented:

"With this acquisition, Amatsigroup positions itself as a major player in the fastest growing market segment: the development of biological molecules, which now represents more than one new molecule out of two. The integration of Q-Biologicals will give Amatsigroup a platform to consolidate its offering in the field of large molecules and offer the most complete service to its customers. We also strengthen our international footprint."

Annie Van Broekhoven, Chief Executive Officer of Q-Biologicals added:

"From its start, the Q-Biologicals team did a great job in developing the company to become an international player. We are very pleased and thrilled to become part of the Amatsigroup, which we consider as an ideal partner to successfully grow our service offer. Due to the synergies with the Amatsigroup activities, we can provide our clients with a total solution for the development and production of their biological compounds."

About Amatsigroup

Amatsigroup, as a CDMO (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization), provides preclinical and clinical stage services for the development of human and veterinary drugs. Amatsigroup, founded in 2010, was formed through the merger of four companies (Avogadro, Amatsi, DBI, Avepharm) bringing complementary expertise. As of 2014, Amatsigroup began to expand internationally with the acquisition of its subsidiaries SEPS Pharma in Belgium and Amatsigroup Inc. (Indiana, USA). Its international expansion continued in 2015 with the acquisition of Pierre Fabre's pharmaceutical analysis laboratory in Saint-Augustin, France.

With more than 240 highly qualified staff and a diversified clientele of 300 international pharmaceutical groups and biotech companies, Amatsigroup is the leading provider of services for the development of veterinary and human pharmaceutical products.

Amatsigroup contributed to the development and registration of more than 30 drugs for use in human health clinical trials and more than 20 in animal health.

Amatsigroup provides its customers with a broad array of international services in five core business areas:

  • Bioservices: PK, ADME, residues, tolerance studies and preclinical and clinical bioanalysis.
  • Pharmaceutical analysis solutions: analytical method development and validation, stability studies, quality control on API and drug products.
  • Formulation development and manufacturing: galenic development, non-sterile and sterile trial and clinical batch manufacturing.
  • Clinical trial supply │ Packaging and logistics: GMP storage, packaging, labeling, QP release and worldwide distribution.
  • Biologicals: bioprocesses, biomanufacturing and control.

About Q-Biologicals

Q-Biologicals is a spin-off from the Flemish Institute of Biotechnology (VIB) and the University of Ghent (UGent). It provides a full range of biological process development and manufacturing services for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry.

Supported by a mix of private and public investors (VIB, Fund+, PMV, management) Q-Biologicals has a team of professionals with more than 20 years of experience in biopharmaceutical processes and serves a clientele of large pharmaceutical groups.

Q-Biologicals has successfully delivered on nearly 75 R&D projects in less than four years in the fields of therapeutics, vaccines and diagnostics, as well as several clinical batch manufacturing projects.

It has its own state-of-the-art cGMP facilities and is cGMP certified (Eudra 1857).

1 cGMP: current Good Manufacturing Practice

Contacts


Amatsigroup contact:
Alain Sainsot, Tel.: +33 (0)5 62 14 73 14
[email protected]
www.AMATSIGROUP.com

or

Q-Biologicals contact:
Annie Van Broekhoven, Tel.: +32 (0)9 241 11 03
[email protected]

or

Press contact:
NewCap – Nicolas Merigeau,  Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 98
[email protected]