PCI Pharma Services has acquired an entire equity stake in contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO), Ajinomoto Althea.
By acquiring the US-based sterile fill-finish CDMO, PCI will hold a San Diego manufacturing location in the key North American market for the first time.
This follows Trumps threats to remove pharmaceuticals from import tariff exemptions, prompting many huge pharma names such as Novartis, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Roche to bolster their US operations.
Estimated to be completed in May 2025, the acquisition will allow PCI access to Ajinomoto Althea's prefilled syringes and cartridge manufacturing capabilities, as well as its high-potency medicinal production capacity.
Ajinomoto Althea offers services through all stages of the pipeline — from clinical to commercial — while offering clients its extensive drug delivery expertise and knowledge in producing scalable oligonucleotides and peptides.
This will add to PCI's service portfoliom which centres around lyophilisation and complex injectable formulations, including nanoparticles, mRNA, mAbs, protein and other biologics.
Interestingly, since Ajinomoto Althea is capable of vial filling with lyophilised, highly potent APIs, PIC will become one of the few US-based CDMOs able to produce antibody drug conjugates (ADCs).
Althea's assets will also bolster PCI's advanced drug delivery systems business, as well as its drug-device business, meaning the company will be better equipped to cater to its North American clients' final device assembly and packaging needs.
"PCI is making sizable investments in the sterile fill-finish category, which bring additional capabilities, capacity and technologies to our portfolio," stated Salim Haffar, PCI Pharma Services' CEO.
“Welcoming Althea into the PCI family expands our capabilities to support several therapeutic and drug delivery modalities, including the emerging ADC marketplace, and complements our broad end-to-end solutions alongside clinical trial services and advanced drug delivery,” he concluded.
