Aptuit has divested its aseptic clinical manufacturing site in Glasgow, UK to Albany Molecular Research, Inc. (AMRI), and has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its West Lafayette, IN solid-state chemistry business (SSCI) for a total consideration of $60 million.

AMRI paid $24 million for the Glasgow business, and, subject to certain closing conditions, will pay the remaining $36 million for the West Lafayette business and will assume certain liabilities related to that subsidiary. AMRI expects to complete the transaction in 1Q15. The Aptuit businesses are expected to contribute $25 to $30 million to AMRI’s revenue.

The acquisition expands AMRI’s drug product development and aseptic clinical manufacturing capabilities. The SSCI site has expertise solving difficult drug substance and formulated drug product challenges and offers expertise in solid-state chemistry and analytical services. Also, Aptuit’s Glasgow facility will extend AMRI’s capabilities platform to include sterile injectable drug product formulation and clinical stage manufacturing.

Dr. Jonathan Goldman, Aptuit’s chief executive officer, said, “The sale of these sites to AMRI is part of our strategy to divest non-core assets and invest in our core competency of integrated early discovery to mid-phase drug development. We will continue to deliver world-class drug discovery and development services from our fully integrated, former large pharma R&D center of excellence in Verona, Italy, and our API facility in Oxford, UK. This transaction, which is part of our strategic initiative to grow our integrated offerings, will facilitate reinvestment in our core competencies and allow us to further differentiate our existing, unique capabilities and pursue strategic acquisitions.”
 
Dr. Goldman noted that Aptuit’s reinvestment strategy would include targeted acquisitions to expand the company’s service offerings and capital expenditure at the Verona facility.

“We are very pleased to acquire these two facilities from Aptuit, which will further AMRI’s expertise in drug product development and aseptic manufacturing services, two areas of our business where we are seeing the fastest level of growth,” said William S. Marth, AMRI’s president and chief executive officer. “Analytical Services sits at the interface of API and Drug Product, providing critical support for all aspects of pharmaceutical development and manufacturing. The West Lafayette team brings extensive material science knowledge and technology and will expand our capabilities in analytical testing to include peptides, proteins and oligonucleotides.