CCL buys drug insert firm

Canada's CCL Industries has acquired Lucas-Insertco, a US company which prints consumer instructional leaflets (inserts or outserts) for the pharmaceutical industry, for approximately C$18 million (€11.4m), including the assumption of debt.

Lucas-Insertco reported 2002 sales of around C$20 million and earnings of C$4 million, and operates its printing activities from two facilitiesin Baltimore, Maryland and San German, Puerto Rico. The company has been providing services for the pharmaceutical industry for more than 25 years.

Donald Lang, CCL's chief executive, said the new acquisition would complement CCL's existing operations in pressure sensitive and expanded content labels. The company says it can now offer a "one-stop shop" for labels and inserts/outserts, an important consideration as these are "critical control items in the pharmaceutical packaging process and are therefore subject to thesame quality, good manufacturing practice and [regulatory] standards​."

Lang added that many major North American pharmaceutical companies see strategic advantage to acquiring these products from a single source. CCL and Lucas-Insertco already have a history of collaborating in the marketing of their products to the healthcare industry.