Avara buys another drug formulation site

Avara Pharmaceutical Services has agreed to acquire AstraZeneca’s Reims, France, manufacturing and distribution facility. It’s the pharma service firm’s second deal for finished-drug manufacturing capacity in recent weeks, following an agreement to purchase Glaxo­Smith­Kline’s solid-dose formulation plant in Aiken, S.C. With the addition of Reims, Avara will have eight sites in France, Puerto Rico, the U.K., Ireland, Italy, and the U.S. Drug industry veteran Tim Tyson launched Avara in 2015 with the purchase of a Merck & Co. formulation plant in Arecibo, P.R.