The $7.2bn (€6bn) deal, first announced in May, was completed this week and sees Thermo Fisher add small and large molecule contract manufacturing capacity, a network of production plants and 9,000 staff to its business.
“By adding Patheon's highly complementary CDMO capabilities to our leading clinical trials services and bioproduction technologies, we will be an even stronger partner for our pharmaceutical and biotech customers,” Thermo Fisher’s CEO Marc Casper said in a press release yesterday.
Thermo Fisher is one a handful of major life science firm which supplies bioprocessing tech and tools to biomanufacturers. Its product offering, ranging from single-use bioreactors, to reagents, to chromatography equipment and consumables, has grown steadily through a series of acquisitions but this latest addition is an entirely new direction for Thermo Fisher.
Patheon – which reported $1.87bn in revenue last year – claims to have been involved in 17 out of 55 (30%) of all outsourced NDA approvals in 2016, and has a manufacturing network consisting of 30 plants.
By directly supplying bioprocessing technologies and capabilities, Patheon could increase its competitiveness over contract biomanufacturing rivals such as Catalent and Fujifilm
“With seamless access to our bioproduction capabilities, Patheon's biologics development and manufacturing capabilities will provide even greater benefit for customers,” Casper said back in May. “Thermo Fisher's bioproduction business will also benefit from having an in-house world-class showcase for our technologies.”