Intertek Buys Melbourn for Delivery Device and Formulation Knowhow
The takeover – financial terms of which were not disclosed – will add Melbourn’s 80-strong team and 20,000 sq ft good manufacturing practice (GMP) compliant testing and development facility to Intertek’s offering.
It will also broaden Intertek’s range of technical capabilities according to Andrew Swift, SVP Intertek Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals, who set out the rational for the takeover for in-Pharmatechnologist.com.
“Melbourn will add, amongst numerous technical benefits, at least two new capabilities to Intertek’s offering. Firstly their expertise in oral, intranasal and transdermal drug delivery and technologies; secondly, in the provision of expert formulation development services which we have been seeking to establish for some time.”
He also stressed that joining forces with Melbourn is a strategic and expansive move, explaining that “the acquisition brings Melbourn’s strong team, expert knowhow and GMP facility in Cambridge into Intertek’s international services delivery platform.”
Expansion strategy
Buying Melbourn to add technical capabilities fits with the strategy Intertek has followed over the last decade for both its pharmaceutical and food analysis services businesses.
In 2006 for example Intertek bought its way into the bioanalysis market with its $25m (EUR19m) takeover of Alta Laboratories. The following year it acquired US laboratory QTI, broadening its range of pharmaceutical analytical services.
This pattern continued in 2008 with the purchase of Bioclin Research Labs – which added liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) to Intertek’s capabilities.
Prior to today’s announcement recent acquisitions had been focused on expanding Intertek’s food testing business, notably the 2011 takeover of Food Analytical Laboratories for £6m and the 2012 purchase of South Africa’s Food Safety Assessment.
