A Spanish CMO is looking to expand and now has a new investor to help that happen.
Pamplona, Spain-based Idifarma announced Monday that Suanfarma, an API producer based in Madrid, had bought out some of the venture capital investors who helped Idifarma get started 15 years ago. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Suanfarma bought out three VC investors, although two remain.
Idifarma specializes in high potency development and manufacturing and spray drying. The company was formed in 2001 and says it now has 100 pharmaceutical clients in Europe.
Luis Oquiñena, a co-founder of Idifarma says said the deal represents a new growth phase for the CDMO. He said in a statement the deal will allow Idifarma to tap into Suanfarma’s business in the U.S., India, China, Brazil and Mexico.
“With a proven business model, Idifarma has huge growth potential and we plan to develop the CDMO’s percentage of international business, which already exceeds 50%," Hector Ara Sanz, CEO of the privately held Suanfarma, said in the statement.
Idifarma's GMP plant in Navarra, Spain, began by producing products for clinical trials but was approved in 2013 by regulators for larger batches. That included commercial batches of tablets with a high level of specialization, such as cytotoxics, cytostatics and hormonals. The plant also can also be used for small batches of commercial product, the company said at the time.
The deal comes as the CMO industry is consolidating, including deals involving companies in Spain. In June, Greek contract manufacturer Famar bought a plant in Leganes, Spain, that Roche had said it intended to sell or close.
Last year, Altan Pharma, an Ireland-based specialty drug company, bought GES Group, a Madrid-based company that sells generic injectables to Spain's hospital market. Terms of the arrangement were not disclosed, but Altan had received a €34.5 million ($38.7 million) investment for the deal from Ireland-based life science equity investor Malin.
- here’s the release
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