Cambrex Acquires Stake in Indian Formulator

Cambrex Corp. has acquired a 51% stake in Zenara Pharma for $20 million. Zenara is pharmaceutical company based in Hyderabad, India, focused on the formulation of final dosage form products. Under the stock purchase agreement, Cambrex will acquire the remaining 49% in early 2016 at a value based on a combination of 2015 earnings, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The company will be known as Cambrex Zenara.

With the acquisition Cambrex gains entry into the growing Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) market, providing both APIs and finished dosage form products, as well as creates the opportunity to integrate its own API and drug delivery capabilities with Zenara’s range of formulation and finished dosage form capabilities.

Steve Klosk, the president and chief executive officer of Cambrex, said, “This transaction represents another significant step in Cambrex’s strategic objective of enhancing our technology portfolio and providing high value products to the pharmaceutical industry.We are excited to partner with Zenara and believe the combination of capabilities and technologies will make us a global leader in providing products for the approximately $1.5 billion NRT market. We commend the team at Zenara for building a strong company and we look forward to working with them to rapidly grow the business.”

Ashok Narasimhan, president of Cambrex Zenara, added, “Cambrex, with its leading position in western markets for the development and manufacture of APIs, and its history of supplying products to the NRT market, is a natural partner for Zenara.Our technology and cost position enable us to supply cost-effective products to our customers in both developed and higher growth emerging markets.We are currently supporting our customer’s launch of NRT gums and lozenges in India, with rollouts in several other high potential markets to follow in 2011 and beyond.We look forward to working with Cambrex to accelerate our market penetration and expand access for both companies to new product categories, geographies and customers.”