GSK Sells Consumer Healthcare Plant

Avara Pharmaceutical Services, a Norwalk, Connecticut-headquartered contract development and manufacturing organization, has agreed to acquire GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK’s) 250,000-square-foot consumer healthcare manufacturing facility in Aiken, South Carolina.

Avara provides active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) development and manufacturing, formulation and drug-product manufacturing, and packaging of small-molecule drugs, including highly potent compounds.  Avara has secondary manufacturing technologies, including granulation, coating, blending, encapsulation, compression and drying of tablets and capsules. Avara also has sterile manufacturing capability.

Following completion of the transaction with GSK, Avara will have seven sites. The sites include: Norwalk, Connecticut; Arecibo, Puerto Rico; Shannon, Ireland; Norman, Oklahoma; Avlon, UK; Liscate, Italy; and Aiken, South Carolina.

The company has built its manufacturing network with other acquisitions. In August 2017, the company acquired Pfizer’s sterile manufacturing facility in Liscate, Italy. In 2016, Avara acquired AstraZeneca’s manufacturing facility in Avlon, Avonmouth, England. The facility manufactures APIs and intermediates.

Also in 2016, Avara acquired Astellas’s wholly owned manufacturing subsidiary, Astellas Pharma Technologies located in Norman, Oklahoma. With the acquisition, Avara acquired 300,000 square feet of building space that provides dosage-form development, commercial manufacturing, formulation, analytical laboratories, and warehousing.

The company’s site in Shannon, Ireland was acquired from UCB and produces APIs. Avara’s facility in Arecibo, Puerto Rico was acquired from Merck & Co. and offers manufacturing and packaging capabilities for oral solid dose drug products, including for high-containment products.

The transaction is expected to be completed on or before June 1, 2018.

Source: Avara Pharmaceutical Services

 

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