Mercachem, a privately owned leading European contract research organization, has agreed to acquire Synthon's Prague-based laboratory and pilot scale operations for the manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) under cGMP. The acquisition will allow Mercachem to expand on its current activities and provide its customers with a broader portfolio of services.

Synthon's divestment decision is based in its strategic initiative to concentrate all its R&D and manufacturing activities that currently take place in the Czech Republic in one location. All activities and projects relating to Synthon's own proprietary product portfolio carried out in Prague will be transferred to Synthon's fully integrated API R&D and production site in Blansko, also in the Czech Republic. As a result of the acquisition, all Synthon Prague employees will join Mercachem per the contractually agreed date of 1 October 2014.

Mercachem is excited to start carrying out scale-up and cGMP synthesis of drug substances in Prague for the purpose of clinical trials. In addition the company will perform contract manufacturing of small volume commercial products and conduct all related research activities.

Frank Leemhuis, managing director of Mercachem comments: "This acquisition, in combination with our existing activities in drug discovery, gives us the opportunity to offer a complete range of chemistry services from compound design to clinical proof of concept and beyond, all located within the European Union. We are extremely happy with this opportunity to acquire these operations with an experienced team with a proven track record as well as state-of-the-art facilities with clean inspection history."
Financial details on the acquisition will not be disclosed.