Novasep expands in China, raises €40m for investments
pharmafile | April 3, 2012 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | China, Novasep, Shanghai, manufacturing
French processing equipment supplier Novasep has opened a new facility in China to meet what it says is increasing demand for its purification systems in East Asia.
The 2,000 sq. m. facility adds to an existing facility in the Pudong district in Shanghai which has been operated by the company since 2006 and employs around 50 staff. The new unit includes 800 sq. m. dedicated to innovation and process development through laboratory, piloting and testing areas.
“The ongoing growth of life sciences industries in China and Asia stretches local demand for domestic production and innovation capabilities,” said the company in a statement, noting it is seeing increasing demand for purification technologies and integrated processes in batch and continuous membrane filtration, ion exchange, and chromatography.
Novasep said it the unit will help it to expand purification process solutions for biopharmaceuticals including recombinant proteins, peptides, biosimilars, monoclonal antibodies and insulin, as well as pharmaceuticals such as optical isomers and certain anti-cancer active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).
The facility will also add to Novasep’s existing 12 global synthesis and process sites in France, the US, Germany, Belgium and the Bahamas.
Investment fund
Meanwhile, Novasep has raised around €40 million via a €310 million recapitalisation programme that will be used to finance ‘growth projects’, including new technologies for purifying biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical APIs.
The recapitalisation also reduces Novasep’s ongoing payments to service debt, effectively by converting some of the debt into equity, which should free up additional funds going forward.
The company’s chief executive Roger-Marc Nicoud said the deal was “an endorsement of Novasep’s unique business model, which leverages our expertise in purification to enable our customers to either insource or outsource to us the production of their active molecules”.
Phil Taylor
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