Croda Acquires Biosector; Strengthens Pharmaceutical Offering

Croda International Plc, the speciality chemical company that creates high performance ingredients and technologies relied upon by industry and consumers globally, recently announced that it has strengthened its pharmaceutical offering by signing a definitive agreement with Brenntag Nordic A/S to acquire Brenntag Biosector (Biosector), for a total consideration of $81.7 million in cash. This transaction is expected to close by the end of 2018.

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, said “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, added “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.”

Established in 1925, Croda is the name behind high performance ingredients and technologies in some of the world’s biggest and most successful brands: creating, making and selling speciality chemicals that are relied on by industries and consumers everywhere.

Croda has a network of over 4,300 passionate and committed employees, working together as one global team across manufacturing sites and offices in 37 countries. Croda is a FTSE100 company with a flexible structure that allows it to focus on developing and delivering innovative, sustainable ingredients that its customers can build on in: Personal Care, Life Sciences (Health Care and Crop Care), Performance Technologies (Smart Materials, Energy Technologies, Home Care & Water Treatment) and Industrial Chemicals. For more information, visit www.croda.com.