Cambrex adds Avista Pharma to the fold in $250M deal

CDMO Cambrex likes its deals big or small. In September it closed the $425 million deal acquisition of Halo Pharma. This week it is buying a four-facility competitor in a $250 million deal.

Cambrex, which makes small molecule generic APIs, said on Tuesday it has an agreement to buy Avista Pharma Solutions, known as Avista, which it calls a contract development, manufacturing and testing organization. It is paying about $252 million in cash to private equity firm Ampersand Capital Partners, which owns Avista.

Cambrex said the deal will give it a foothold in the market for early stage small molecule development and testing services.

"Like the Halo transaction in September, this acquisition opens up an exciting new segment of the market for Cambrex and brings a large number of new customer relationships to Cambrex," Cambrex CEO Steve Klosk said in a statement. "These new relationships will provide cross selling opportunities for Cambrex’s API and finished dosage form services, and will significantly increase the funnel of molecules that may advance to commercial status, where Cambrex has always excelled."

Cambrex will pick up four facilities where Avista does a combination of analytical testing, early stage process chemistry, formulation development, manufacturing or solid state chemistry services. They are in Durham, North Carolina, which is Avista’s headquarters, as well as Longmont, Colorado; Agawam, Massachusetts; and Edinburgh, Scotland. Avista’s 330 person workforce will join Cambrex’s 1,700 employees.

This deal comes just weeks after Cambrex acquired Halo Pharma from private equity company SK Capital in a $425 million deal. Halo operates manufacturing sites in Whippany, New Jersey, and Montreal, Canada, comprising a total of 430,000 square feet of plant space. Its 450-person workforce was added to that of Cambrex.

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