International Chemical Investors Group (ICIG) keeps rolling up pharma manufacturing operations, this time picking up a couple of plants in France and Italy. They will be the sixth and seventh facilities for ICIG in the last three years.
The privately owned industrial holding company says it is buying plants in Calaire, France, and Farchemia, Italy, from Tessenderlo Group for an undisclosed amount. The plants make active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and intermediates, according to in-PharmaTechnologist. The Brussels, Belgium-based Tessenderlo decided to exit pharma operations to concentrate on other areas of business, like food manufacturing. It will take a €35 million ($46.1 million) charge from the sale, the publication says, ending the year with a €40.2 million ($53 million) loss.
ICIG already had 17 independently managed businesses, all with ties to pharmaceutical or chemical operations, it says in a release. According to in-PharmaTechnologist, the company previously has acquired operations cast off by AstraZeneca ($AZN), Bristol-Myers Squibb ($BMY), Genzyme and Roche ($RHHBY).
There has been a fair amount of action in API manufacturing of late, in Europe as well as in Asia, as companies often look to contractors, often in low-cost areas, instead of operating their own API plants. Still, some API makers in Europe and the U.S. believe that issues at plants in China and India may reinvigorate interest in the West. French contract pharmaceutical manufacturer and supplier Novasep said in October that it would invest invest €30 million ($38.6 million) in what it calls the "world's largest chromatography plant" on its existing site in Mourenx, France.
- here's the release
- read in-PharmaTechnologist's story