Lonza to Exit Pharma Softgels and Liquid-Filled Hard Capsules

Lonza and NextPharma have formed an agreement for the potential sale of Lonza's Ploermel, France and Edinburgh, UK sites, subject to relevant conditions and regulatory approvals.

The Ploermel and Edinburgh sites employ around 260 and 130 permanent staff respectively. They produce liquid-filled hard capsules, including Licaps, and softgels for high potent and hormonal products.

NextPharma offers specialized contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) services in oral and topical, including sterile ophthalmic, finished dosage forms. With this intended acquisition, NextPharma plans to develop and broaden its technology offering into lipid based finished dosage forms—softgels and liquid-filled hard capsules—in addition to offering high potency capabilities and New Chemical Entity (NCE) development services to both its existing and new customers.

With this intended divestment, Lonza plans to exit both softgels and liquid-filled hard capsules for the pharma market, aside from retaining capability for feasibility studies as part of a technology selection offering. In the consumer health and nutrition space, Lonza plans to exit softgels but continue to offer Licaps-based products (lipid capsules) out of Colmar (FR), Greenwood (US) & Sagamihara (JP). Capsules, including Licaps for nutrition, remain core to Lonza’s offering and the company has recently announced an investment of CHF85m to expand capsule manufacturing capacity by 30 billion capsules annually across eight sites.

“NextPharma is an established and well-respected company, with extensive experience in oral and topical finished dosage forms,” said Gordon Bates, president and head of small molecules, Lonza. “As such, it is the ideal buyer given the technologies available at the Ploermel and Edinburgh sites. 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. Both our companies have a focus on people development and customers and we will be working closely in the coming months to ensure a smooth transition for all if the project is concluded.”

Peter Burema, chief executive officer, NextPharma, said, “At NextPharma, we are very excited at the prospect of adding two new centers 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. On behalf of NextPharma, I look forward to welcoming our future colleagues, and I am confident that together we will continue to further develop and grow NextPharma as a leading and well-respected European CDMO.”