Patheon investing $45 million in multisite service expansion

Still in the process of being acquired by Thermo Fisher for $7.2 billion, the drug services firm Patheon says it will spend $45 million to expand several sites in the U.S. and Europe. The investment continues the company’s push to establish a full-product life-cycle pharmaceutical service.

Patheon will build a 1,400-m2 spray-drying facility at an active pharmaceutical ingredient plant in Florence, S.C., that it acquired from Roche last year. The firm will also add an analytical lab to its spray-drying operation in Bend, Ore.

In Greenville, N.C., Patheon will expand packaging and serialization capabilities with a 445-m2 manufacturing line.

In Monza, Italy, the company is adding commercial-scale sterile product facilities for large- and small-molecule drugs. At the same site, it is installing lyophilizers, a sterile vial filling line, and an analytical laboratory for its pharmaceutical development service.

Patheon became an end-to-end drug services firm through the 2013 merger of DSM’s pharmaceutical chemicals division and Patheon’s finished drug manufacturing operation. The firm will soon be linked to Thermo Fisher’s clinical drug packing and distribution service.

James Bruno, president of the consulting firm Chemical & Pharmaceutical Solutions, says the investment generally targets growth and increased market share. “They want to match demand to capacity and make sure they have the correct equipment for the future,” he says. “Not sure how the Fisher acquisition is going to affect all of this.”