DSM takes control of biologics unit
manufacturing unit after buying out its Canadian joint venture
partner.
DSM Pharmaceutical Products, which develops and manufactures products for the pharmaceutical industry, bought the 40 per cent share interest in DSM Biologics Holding from Société Générale de Financement du Québec (SGF), an industrial and financial holding company based in Montreal, which carries out economic development projects in Québec.
With this transaction DSM Pharmaceutical Products has gained full ownership of DSM Biologics. The business also operates DSM Pharmaceuticals Inc, which provides sterile fill/finish capabilities to the drug industry.
For a period of ten years DSM Biologics operated as a 40/60 joint venture of SGF and DSM. In December 2004, SGF decided to withdraw from a number of joint ventures, amongst which DSM Biologics.
Leendert Staal, president of DSM Pharma, commented: "DSM very much regrets the decision of SGF, but now gets 100 per cent ownership, which gives DSM full control and increases its degree of freedom to operate."
DSM Biologics is a producer of biological pharmaceuticals, with R&D and manufacturing sites in Montreal in Canada and Groningen in the Netherlands. The company concentrates on its positions in innovative technologies, such as perfusion technology and the cell line PER.C6, for which it holds an exclusive license from Crucell, with the right to sub-license, for custom manufacturing of monoclonal antibodies and other recombinant proteins.
DSM and Crucell collaborate in establishing PER.C6 as the novel industry platform for the production of proteins, and have jointly signed PER.C6 license agreements for proteins with seventeen companies across the US, Europe and Japan, including Roche, Eli Lilly, Merck & Co, Johnson & Johnson/Centocor, Biogen IDEC, Chiron and Mitsubishi.
In May, DSM and Crucell forged their latest PER.C6 agreement, with Ferring Pharmaceuticals, for the use of the cell line in the production of products in the female health care market.
