Japanese company AGC has completed its acquisition of pharmaceutical active ingredient manufacturing plant Malgrat Pharma Chemicals (MPC). The acquisition will allow AGC to manufacture and process intermediates for synthetic pharmaceuticals in Europe, expanding its presence in the European market. AGC aims to generate sales of over ¥65bn ($590m) in 2020 and over ¥100bn in 2025. The acquisition of MPC follows AGC's previous acquisitions of biopharmaceutical CDMO companies Biomeva and CMC Biologics. AGC plans to continue investing in its synthetic and bio pharmaceutical businesses to better serve the pharmaceutical industry and patients.
AGC (Headquarters: Tokyo; President: Takuya Shimamura) announces the completion of its acquisition of the synthetic pharmaceutical(*1) active ingredient manufacturing plant, Malgrat Pharma Chemicals, S.L.U. (MPC). The transaction had been previously announced on December 4, 2018. The financial results relevant to this acquisition will be reflected in AGC's consolidated accounts from 1Q FY2019.
With the addition of MPC, it has now become possible for AGC to manufacture and process intermediates for synthetic pharmaceuticals all the way through active ingredients, in Europe. AGC had been serving pharmaceutical customers with its original fluorine technology and extensive experience in in-house drug discovery from Japan, and this will be an additional physical location to serve from. MPC both meets cGMP(*2) standards, as well as having a long history as a production site with strong track record. Its production lines are designed to handle diverse scales needed, from development phase to commercial stage pharmaceuticals. With this acquisition, AGC hopes to increase its presence in the European market, where demand is forecasted to continue at a significant growth rate, and further expand its CDMO(*3) synthetic pharmaceuticals business for customers around the world.
Under its AGC plus management policy, the AGC Group places the life sciences business as a strategic business, and is aiming to generate sales of over 65 billion yen in 2020, and over 100 billion yen in 2025. The acquisition of MPC has allowed the AGC Group to obtain another manufacturing and sales base outside of Japan, following the acquisitions of the biopharmaceutical CDMO companies Biomeva (2016) and CMC Biologics (2017). With this step now complete, the AGC group will continue to proactively search for next opportunities and to invest in its synthetic and bio pharmaceutical businesses, so as to better serve through its capabilities, the pharmaceutical industry and the patients and wider society they serve in turn.
Notes
*1 Synthetic pharmaceutical: Pharmaceuticals produced from chemical synthesis
*2 cGMP: Standards for manufacturing and quality control of pharmaceuticals and quasi-pharmaceuticals (current Good Manufacturing Practice)
*3 CDMO: A company that carries out contracted manufacturing as well as contracted development of manufacturing methods and carrying out such development on behalf of a third party (Contract Development & Manufacturing Organization)