Mercachem, a privately owned European contract research organization, plans to acquire Synthon's Prague-based laboratory and pilot scale operations for manufacturing active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) under cGMP. Both companies are based at Nijmegen in the Netherlands.

Financial details of the deal are not being disclosed.

Mercachem said the acquisition, due to take effect from Oct. 14, will allow it to expand on its current activities and provide its customers with a complete range of chemistry services from compound design to clinical proof of concept and beyond.

For Synthon, the decision to divest the activities in Prague reflects its strategy to concentrate all of its proprietary R&D and manufacturing activities at Blansko in the Czech Republic.

Mercachem will take over all of Synthon's staff at Prague, where it will carry out scale-up and cGMP synthesis of drug substances for clinical trials as well as performing contract manufacturing of small volume commercial products and conducting all related research activities.

Founded in 1997, Mercachem employs around 135 chemists in state-of-the-art research facilities and supplies pharmaceutical and biotech companies worldwide. Synthon is an internationally active pharmaceutical producer with a focus on auto-immune/neurodegenerative diseases and oncology and generic medicines. The company started its biopharmaceutical franchise in 2007 and is building what it calls a promising portfolio of next-generation medicines.