Recipharm to acquire Consort Medical

Abstract

Recipharm, a pharmaceutical services firm based in Stockholm, is buying Consort Medical, a British supplier of drug-delivery devices and manufacturing services, for about $650 million. The deal marks further consolidation among pharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs), a sector that in recent years has seen the rise of large players offering an end-to-end range of research and production services. Recipharm claims the acquisition will give it annual sales of more than $1 billion and put it among the top five CDMOs. The acquisition follows a period of aggressive dealmaking by both firms. Consort added active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and finished-drug services to Bespak, its drug-delivery device business, in 2014 with the $370 million purchase of Aesica, a UK-based CDMO that helped pioneer the purchase of large plants from major drug companies. Recipharm also picked up big pharma assets in a slew of deals dating back to its purchase of