Irish CMO in bankruptcy after Saneca Pharmaceuticals gives up on it

By Eric Palmer May 19, 2016 9:25am

An Irish contract manufacturer that once belonged to Stada Group, and which has changed hands several times in recent years, has ended up in liquidation, meaning about 130 workers are likely to lose their jobs.

An Irish court this week appointed a liquidator for Suir Pharma Ireland, which will continue to operate its two plants while efforts are made to sell the CMO, according to The Irish Times. Suir was sold by Germany’s Stada to German restructuring specialist Mutares in 2012. Mutares then sold it for an undisclosed amount last year to privately owned Saneca Pharmaceuticals, a Slovakian company once owned by Sanofi-Aventis.

Saneca, which has been around for more than 75 years, produces a range of generic products in Slovakia, both finished dosage products and APIs, including opiate APIs, but was unable to turn around the fortunes at Suir. The CMO, which operates two plants in County Tipperary, has run up about $7.2 million (€4.9 million) in losses in the last 15 months. It ran into problems with a Chinese API that prevented it from manufacturing a key product, the newspaper reports.

The court was told the business is expected to continue to lose money into next year and Saneca is unwilling to cover the operation’s losses. Suir, which has 130 workers, is being allowed to continue production while the liquidator attempts to sell the business.

The potential closure of Suir is the second piece of bad news for Ireland’s manufacturing industry this week. Roche ($RHHBY) told about 240 employees at a plant in Clarecastle, Ireland, that it had been unable to sell the facility and will proceed with plans to close it in the next two to three years.

- read the Irish Times story

plant closure Ireland