PharmaZell and Novasep to merge

PharmaZell, a German-based producer of speciality APIs, and France’s CDMO Groupe Novasep are to merge under the ownership of PharmaZell’s current majority shareholder, private equity firm Bridgepoint. This remains subject to consultation with employees and other closing conditions.

The two said that this would create “a leading European platform in the attractive API manufacturing and CDMO space with a complementary set of differentiated technologies and highly diversified base of blue-chip pharma and biotech customers”. It will have revenues of about €500 million/year and nearly 2,000 employees across seven production and R&D sites in Europe, two in India and one in the US.

Novasep’s specialised capabilities include high energy and cryogenic chemistries, industrial scale chromatography, ADCs and HPAPIs, particularly for cancer treatment. This would be “highly complementary” to PharmaZell’s expertise in the manufacturing of complex APIs requiring special handling procedures or technologies, it was claimed.

“Combining Novasep and PharmaZell, this new integrated approach would benefit our customers who would gain from the simplicity and efficiency of working with one company along the lifecycle of a drug,” said PharmaZell CEO Dr Sylke Hassel, who will lead the combined business. Novasep CEO Dr Michel Spagnol will join the board.