Avecia acquires Synthon's Fine Chemicals Business

Avecia Acquires Carbohydrates-Based Chiral Technologies From Synthon Chiragenics

24 February 2003 00:00  [Source: ICB Americas]

This week, at the Informex trade show in New Orleans, La., Avecia will announce its acquisition of the pharmaceutical fine chemicals business of Synthon Chiragenics Corp., a Monmouth Junction, N.J., developer of carbohydrates-based chiral technologies. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

"This acquisition further extends Avecia's leadership in chiral technologies, adding new capabilities and technologies that complement our existing chiral tool kit, and broadening the range of added-value options for our customers," says Peter Jack-son, Avecia vice president, pharmaceutical products.

Avecia gains access to a variety of C-3, C-4 and C-5 chiral entities, among them the key chiral building block (S)-3-hydroxy-gamma-butyrolactone. Avecia also receives new business op-portunities that range from preclinical to launched compounds, and from chiral building blocks to the down-stream synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients, says a company spokesper-son. Customers include ma-jor, emerging and start-up pharma companies in North America, Europe and Japan.

Synthon retains rights to the technology for applications in drug discovery and development, including the synthesis of intermediates and active pharmaceutical ingredients, up to and including preclinical development.

Avecia will continue strategic deve-lopment work with Michigan State University, where the intellectual property behind the chiral building blocks was developed by Rawle Hollingsworth, founder of Synthon Chiragenics and a professor at the university.

"Avecia is well placed to bring to market the full technical and commercial value of this portfolio," says Synthon Chiragenics' CEO Scott Coleridge. "For Synthon, the transaction will release key resources that will accelerate our primary mission in drug discovery and development."