Agno Pharma snaps up Particle Sciences to beef up drug product formulation

The acquisition has added Particle Sciences’ specialized drug product formulation technology to the CDMO’s toolkit in addition to the firm’s development and manufacturing site in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, with approximately 65 employees. The financial details of the deal were undisclosed.

Following the takeover, Agno expects to add more capacity to its drug product formulation and clinical manufacturing offerings. The CDMO also plans to pump up its clinical scale manufacturing muscle with further investments into services including sterile liquid manufacturing and filling services to micronization of sterile powder filling capabilities.

Agno was founded in 2004 and specializes in manufacturing critical intermediates and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for pharmaceutical and biotech customers globally, according to a public release. The company also harnesses a wide network with pharmaceutical manufacturers in China to produce active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) quickly and cheaply, says the company website.

Particle Sciences, in turn, was founded in 1991 and acquired by Lubrizol in 2015. The company provides drug product formulation services in addition to support related to analytics, physical characterization and manufacturing. The company is particularly known for handling potent and poorly soluble compounds in both sterile and non-sterile environments, says a public release.

While healthcare M&A deals have been low over the last several years, interest in investments and acquisitions in the CDMO space is growing as outsourcing becomes increasingly common in the pharmaceutical industry, according to a report​ by advisory firm Alvarez and Marsal. It pointed to GHO Capital Partners and Partners Group’s recent investment in Sterling Pharma Solutions as an example.