Catalent completes Aptuit deal
The deal – which was valued at $410m (€253m) when announced last August – will expand Catalent’s development and – according to the New Jersey firm – positions it as the world’s second biggest provider of clinical supply solutions.
Aptuit will transfer 900 employees and six production and distribution sites, two in the UK, three in the US, and one in Singapore - its first in Asia - to Catalent.
A Bloomberg report suggests that Catalent funded the acquisition through a $400m loan arranged by Morgan Stanley.
Speaking when the Aptuit deal was first announced Catalent CEO John Chiminski said it would build “expertise, scale and capability for our development and clinical services business to better meet our customers' needs globally.
Chiminski also said buying the Aptuit assets would strengthen Catalent’s standing in the “development solutions and advanced delivery technologies for drugs and biologics," which fits with a number of recent investments the firm has announced.
Aptuit refocusing
For Aptuit the divestiture is part of its effort to focus on early to mid-phase solid state chemistry, active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), drug development and consulting services.
CEO Timothy Tyson said: “We have assembled a team comprised of some of the foremost scientific professionals in the industry. As part of our ongoing mission to engineer a better drug development process, we previously implemented a service performance initiative that drives every level of our organization.
“Today, Aptuit people are joining their ‘heads for science’ and their ‘hearts for service’ to continue to provide scientific excellence and a level of service that goes above and beyond what has come to be the industry standard.”
