The agreement sees the contract manufacturers pool their resources to offer pharma and biotech companies a complementary service, from formulation and early stage analysis through to large scale manufacturing.
North Carolina-based AAIPharma provides formulation and early stage analysis through clinical trials while Mallinckrodt, based in Missouri, is a global manufacturer and marketer of healthcare products in the areas of respiratory care, imaging, and analgesic pharmaceuticals.
Therefore, what Mallinckrodt brings to the deal is large-scale manufacturing, which is a service AAI does not provide.
"This alliance significantly strengthens our ability to meet the commercial manufacturing needs of our customers worldwide," said Vito Mangiardi, AAIPharma president of North American Operations.
"Combining AAIPharma and Mallinckrodt's expertise will create competitive advantages for both companies and expand respective business opportunities."
Taking a product from early-phase drug formulation to high-volume commercial manufacturing can be challenging as it involves a number of steps as well as complex technical transfers and this new alliance could prove highly attractive to drug companies, as it will provide a one-stop shop for drug development.
According to AAIPharma, this collaboration will allow it to seamlessly carry its clients from concept through production.
This partnership comes weeks after AAIPharma's acquisition of French cancer-research company Cvitkovic & Associes Consultants, which was announced in September and completed on 26 October.
The road has been rocky for AAIPharma of late as the company filed for bankruptcy last year after being plagued for a year by questions over accountancy fraud.
After narrowly escaping liquidation, the troubled firm undertook a reshuffle under Chapter 11 bankrupcty protection earlier this year and sold off its pharmaceutical products division to concentrate purely on clinical research, hoping the purchase of CAC will set it on the road to recovery.