FLORENCE, SC (WBTW) – Roche Carolina has an agreement with another company to acquire its Florence County facility after announcing more than a year ago that it would be shutting down operations and eliminating 270 jobs.
According to a press release, Patheon has agreed to take over the 33,000 square foot facility.
In November of 2015, Roche said it informed local and state officials and is “committed to working with Florence County Economic Development to seek a buyer for the site.”
Below is a press statement from the new group:
Patheon N.V., a leading global provider of high-quality drug development and delivery solutions to the pharmaceutical and biopharma sectors, announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a state-of-the-art active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) manufacturing facility in Florence, South Carolina, from Roche Holdings, Inc., an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Roche Holding Ltd., which it will integrate into the Patheon network.
Under the terms of the purchase agreement, Patheon will acquire the site for an immaterial sum, plus the cost of associated inventory and spare parts. Patheon has also entered into a multi-year supply arrangement with Roche. Patheon expects the supply agreement to help defray the costs associated with running the site for the next few years while it adds new client work into the facility. Over time, Patheon expects the Florence facility to have a similar financial profile to its other sites in its drug substance segment.
Patheon will acquire a 1,100 acre, 300,000 square-foot facility with manufacturing capacity for API ranging from development to manufacturing services. With the addition of this site, the company expands its capacity for manufacturing highly potent compounds, and adds capabilities to support solid-state chemistry, micronization, and eventually, commercial spray drying.
“As the only end-to-end provider of pharma development and manufacturing services, Patheon is uniquely positioned to integrate this new site into our global network and quickly leverage the capabilities with existing and new clients,” said James Mullen, CEO of Patheon. “The company will benefit from the additional North American API capacity and adds a state-of-the-art facility with approximately 200 scientific and manufacturing professionals.”
The site features reactors ranging from 50-11,000 liters producing multiple products simultaneously, fully compliant with all applicable regulations, such as cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practices) safety and environmental standards. It will provide Patheon with a major U.S. API operation capable of supporting products from clinical scale to commercial manufacturing and further enhances Patheon’s scientific and technical expertise.
