Not letting its expansion efforts idle, contract manufacturer PCI Pharma Services is picking up a 100% stake in Ajinomoto's San Diego-based fill-finish CDMO Ajinomoto Althea.
The deal, for which financial details weren’t disclosed, gives PCI its first production site in North America for prefilled syringes and cartridges, PCI said in a recent press release.
The Althea facility at the heart of the buyout also features isolator technology and is equipped to carry out high-potency manufacturing suitable for antibody-drug conjugates, PCI said. The transaction is expected to close in May.
By adding Althea's high-potency vial filling and freeze drying capabilities to its operations, PCI expects to become one of the "very few" U.S.-based CDMOs able to manufacture ADCs, which have become increasingly popular in oncology for their cancer-fighting prowess.
Althea will bolster PCI's production firepower for clinical and commercial-stage injectable drugs writ large, PCI said in its acquisition announcement. Plus, the San Diego CDMO is well versed in oligonucleotides and peptides, which should complement PCI's existing manufacturing setup for a range of drug types including nanoparticles, mRNA, monoclonal antibodies, proteins and other biologics, PCI said.
“PCI continues to make sizable investments in the sterile fill-finish category that bring additional capabilities, capacity and technologies into our portfolio,” Salim Haffar, PCI’s CEO, said of the Althea purchase in a statement.
Last September, PCI announced that it had invested more than $365 million in a variety of manufacturing projects in both the U.S. and beyond.
That cash infusion helped support new drug delivery tech at PCI's Philadelphia headquarters, plus a 545,000-square-foot planned expansion in Rockford, Illinois. In addition, the company struck an acquisition of a new packaging and device assembly plant near the Irish capital of Dublin.
PCI’s manufacturing footprint spans multiple continents and countries and includes sites in Australia, Canada, the U.S., Ireland, Wales, Germany and Spain.
Meanwhile, Japan's Ajinomoto isn't getting out of the biopharma CDMO business altogether with the sale of its subsidiary Althea. Within healthcare, the company is continuing to prioritize its entry into gene therapy contract manufacturing through its $620 million deal for Forge Biologics back in 2023, the Japanese drugmaker said in a corporate notice (PDF) last week.
In its filing, Ajinomoto said it feels "PCI is the best partner for Althea to continue its growth and maximize its value to customers."
Ajinomoto reported that recent net sales for Althea came out to $122 million, $139 million and $124 million in the fiscal years that ended in March of 2022, 2023 and 2024, respectively.