Johnson Matthey Acquires Scottish Manufacturing Facility From Bakhu Pharma
By Cyndi Root
Johnson Matthey, a British multinational company, has acquired a manufacturing facility in Scotland, where it intends to produce active ingredients and provide custom pharmaceutical services. The company announced the acquisition in a press release, stating that the site was owned by Bakhu Pharma, now insolvent. John Fowler, Division Director at Johnson Matthey Fine Chemicals, said, “This strategic site addition significantly increases our global manufacturing capabilities and capacity. Combining the Annan site with our leading technologies will answer our customers’ needs for efficient production of pharmaceutical intermediates and APIs at the highest quality and compliance standards in the market.”
Scottish Acquisition
The manufacturing plant in Annan, Scotland was commissioned and constructed by GlaxoSmithKline in 1980. Phoenix Chemicals and Shasun Pharma have also owned the facility. Johnson Matthey states that the 109,000 square meter site has enhanced manufacturing capabilities. The assets at the site will complement the company’s chemistry, catalysis, and process technologies. The company intends to invest several million British pounds into the refurbishment, expected to begin early in 2015 and be complete by early 2016.
Johnson Matthey’s Fine Chemicals Division
Johnson Matthey’s Fine Chemicals Division supplies active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and specialty chemical products to the pharmaceutical industry. The Macfarlan Smith plant in Edinburgh supplies opiate alkaloids used in pain management agents. In the U.S., the company manufactures APIs for controlled drugs and anticancer treatments and provides commercial scale API services for generic and branded pharmaceuticals.
Pharmaceutical Plant Acquisitions
A report in Chemical and Engineering News (C&EN) explains how manufacturing facilities are changing hands. The study published on February 8, 2010 is titled, “Taking Over Big Pharma Plants.” It states that big companies constructed the plants when blockbuster drugs were plentiful and patent protection was strong. Industry had more money than it knew what to do with, therefore invested it in manufacturing sites in countries that provided tax shelter and boasted promising markets.
However, recently, mergers and acquisitions have caused redundancies and manufacturing is looked on as more of a gamble. Industry would now rather sell its plants and outsource its manufacturing. Big players like AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co., and Pfizer are scaling back their plants and contracting their API needs.