Actavis acquires API manufacturing company in China
Icelandic generics company Actavis has acquired a 90% share in Chinese API producer Zhejiang Chiral Medicine Chemicals Company for an undisclosed amount as part of its strategy to gain direct access to low cost API manufacturing.
Icelandic generics company Actavis has acquired a 90% share in Chinese API producer Zhejiang Chiral Medicine Chemicals Company for an undisclosed amount as part of its strategy to gain direct access to low cost API manufacturing.
There are substantial synergies between Chiral's and Actavis" portfolios that will result in significant cost reduction of major product lines.
Actavis has already established an API r&d centre in India with a pipeline of 70 products. This new acquisition together with the group's API manufacturing site in India will increase Actavis's cost competitiveness as well as being of strategic importance for selling APIs to other pharmaceutical companies.
Chiral currently employs close to 200 employees in its API manufacturing plant, located in Hangzhou, China. Its products are currently sold to various pharmaceutical companies outside China. Actavis has operations in 40 countries, with 11,000 employees. It produces generic pharmaceuticals at 21 sites in 13 countries, with an annual capacity of 24 bn tablets and capsules.
In China, it operates a manufacturing site in Guangdong, which produces tablets, capsules, suspensions, solutions, creams and ointments.
"This new facility will enable Actavis to further reduce its manufacturing costs and is an important extension of our activities in China," said ceo and president Robert Wessman. "In addition, this further strengthens our backward integration, increasing our API manufacturing capacity."