Swedish drug developer and toll manufacturer Recipharm has acquired Italian contract company Mitim for €68 million.

The acquisition of the family-owned firm, which is located in Brescia, close to Recipharm’s base in northern Italy, gives the Swedish company an important new technology in the niche area of filling sterile beta lactams with facilities inspected by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Beta lactam is part of the core structure of several antibiotic families.

Recipharm said its sales to the US, the largest market for these products, have increased significantly in recent years through the expansion of partnerships.

Commenting on the deal, Recipharm’s CEO Thomas Eldered said it represents an important step in the consolidation of the market for contract development and manufacturing. “The transaction also cements our leading position in beta lactam production and provides Recipharm not only with additional scale but also opportunities to realize commercial and operational synergies as we combine it with our existing Italian business,” he noted.

As well as beta lactams in dry sterile powder for injectable solutions, tablets and oral suspensions, Mitim also produces injectable sterile solutions, oral solids and liquids and semi-solids. The company, which employs around 250 people, has five production lines at Brescia.

Since 2012, Mitim has spent more than €12 million on three new filling lines as well as completing a “significant” investment in a line for injectable beta lactams in March last year.

The transaction, which was completed on Feb. 24, was paid from available funds and required no further financing. The company said the acquisition will be accretive from the second quarter of 2016.

Mitim had pro forma revenues of €42.5 million in 2015.