In a transaction expected to close on Apr.1, Frankfurt, Germany-based private equity company International Chemical Investors Group (ICIG) has agreed with Swiss pharmaceutical producer Novartis to acquire all of the shares in Sandoz Industrial Products, a manufacturer of enzyme-based fermentation products for antibiotics based at the Höchst chemical park in Frankfurt.

Following the Novartis group’s decision in May 2015 to end production of intermediates for 7-ACA antibiotics for external customers and relocate captive production to Austria, the plant’s then-306 employees had feared production would be shut down.

Under the plan unveiled this week, Sandoz Industrial Products and its meanwhile 270 employees will be integrated into CordenPharma Group, the pharma platform of ICIG.

The business will be complementary to both ICIG’s pharma activities and its fine chemicals activities managed as part of the WeylChem Group, which also has a production base at the site once belonging to the erstwhile German chemical giant Hoechst.

ICIG said the Frankfurt site constitutes an important building block for its further expansion into fermentation-based production technology.  CordenPharma will use the fermentation products produced there in its own proprietary antibiotics value chain at Latina, Italy. 

Achim Riemann, managing director of ICIG, said the new production site will expand CordenPharma’s operations, growing its enzymes-based manufacturing portfolio and dedicated antibiotics technology platform while at the same time adding state-of the-art capabilities in microbial fermentation and enzymatic reactions to WeylChem’s extensive non-GMP production capabilities.