Lonza to offload two sites in softgel market exit

Swiss ingredients company Lonza has agreed to sell two lipid oral dosage facilities to NextPharma, as it looks to exit the softgel market.

The included sites are located in Ploermel in France and Edinburgh in Scotland, which employ around 260 and 130 permanent staff respectively. Both facilities produce liquid-filled hard capsules including Licaps and softgels for the pharmaceutical and consumer health and nutrition markets.

With the divestment, Lonza looks to exit both softgels and liquid filled hard capsules for the pharmaceutical market. While the company intends to exit softgels in the consumer health and nutrition space, it plans to continue offering Licaps-based products (lipid capsules).

Lonza says capsules – including Licaps for nutrition – remain core to its offering and the company recently announced an investment of CHF 85 million ($95.9 million) to expand its capsule manufacturing capacity across eight sites.

Gordon Bates, president and head of small molecules at Lonza, said: “We are confident that the capabilities and experience at the two sites are a complementary fit with NextPharma’s portfolio and that it is ideally placed to develop both to their full potential.”

Following the acquisition, NextPharma plans to develop and broaden its technology offering into lipid finished dosage forms, in addition to offering high potency capabilities and new chemical entity development services to both its existing and new customers.

Peter Burema, CEO of NextPharma, added: “At NextPharma, we are very excited at the prospect of adding two new centres of excellence, at Ploermel and Edinburgh, to our manufacturing network, allowing us to further broaden our technology offering for both our existing and new customers. 

“These technologies, combined with the know-how and expertise of the employees at both sites, would provide additional solutions for drug formulations which will benefit patients across the world.”

The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, has been made for an undisclosed sum.