Croda International : Acquisition of Market Leading Vaccine Adjuvant Specialist

2 Jan 2019

Croda International Plc, the speciality chemical company that creates high performance ingredients and technologies relied upon by industry and consumers globally, today announced that it has strengthened its pharmaceutical offering by acquiring Brenntag Biosector (Biosector), for a total consideration of €72 million in cash.

Founded in 1939, Biosector has unprecedented industry experience as a vaccine adjuvant specialist, with their product portfolio comprising of innovative aluminium- and saponin-based adjuvants. The Biosector team, based in Frederikssund, Denmark will be welcomed to the Croda group and continue to be led by Managing Director Peter Tygesen.

Vaccine adjuvants are a complimentary extension of Croda's existing pharmaceutical excipients portfolio within their Health Care business. The acquisition of Biosector will give Croda access to an industry renowned product portfolio of adjuvants, including the well-known brands Alhydrogel® and Adju-Phos®, as well as their technically advanced saponin-based adjuvant systems. Through this acquisition, Croda will not only gain ownership to Biosector's rich development pipeline for second and third generation adjuvant platforms but will also become the only adjuvant supplier in the world with an aseptic and GMP certified manufacturing site for vaccine adjuvants.

Croda will leverage its own dedicated global sales network to accelerate Biosector's growth. Furthermore, the acquisition will enable Croda to better support their existing customers through increased breadth of offering and additional technical expertise in vaccine adjuvants.

Nick Challoner, President of Life Sciences at Croda comments:

"Biosector is a rare asset in a high-value, fast-growing sector of the global pharmaceutical market. With an experienced team, Biosector brings world-class innovation and industry-leading manufacturing facilities. The opportunity to quickly build upon Biosector's impressive track record via our global sales network is enormously exciting and we look forward to welcoming the team to Croda."

Peter Tygesen, Managing Director Biosector, said:

"Croda share our passion for exciting innovation. Under the Croda umbrella we look forward to continuing to grow and further establish our research and development into high quality industry-leading adjuvant platforms."