The group Insud Pharma based in Spain but founded by Argentines Hugo Sigman and Silvia Gold, announced the sale of 55% of mAbxiencethe biotechnology company that produces in the country the active ingredient for the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid, for 495 million euros (about US$ 550 million), plus milestone payments tied to business and development goals.
Founded in 2010, mAbxience is dedicated to the development, manufacture and commercialization of biosimilars. It has three development and production plants, in Spain and Argentinato, and 600 employees. In 2021, billed 255 million euros. Insud, in turn, was born in 1977.
Fresenius, for its part, is a group dedicated to health, mainly known for its products and services for dialysis. In 2021, its sales reached 37.5 billion euros and it has 316,000 employees worldwide.
The company will keep your identity corporate, once the transaction is completed, what would happen mid 2022, once you complete the corresponding legal and regulatory issues.
The mAbxience plant in Garín. AFP photo
“With this alliance, Insud Pharma wants Accelerate the growth of your biotech unit, fostering new opportunities for mAbxience clients and increasing its research and development activities. In fact, a new R&D center in Spain is scheduled to open in early May,” the company said in a statement. They will also be able to expand their geographic coverage.
However, Fresenius signed an agreement that allows the company to acquire the remaining 45% of the shares that are in the hands of Insud, led by Lucas Sigman.
MAbxience markets two biosimilar products (Rituximab and Bevacizumab) and has half a dozen molecules in immunology and oncology that expected to launch globally between 2024 and 2029.
To explain the reasons for the purchase, Fresenius indicated in a statement that, “in addition to the highly competitive production costs for own developments, the manufacturing platform allows mAbxience to offer production services for third parties (CDMO, as this activity is known in the sector), like the contract with AstraZeneca to produce part of the COVID-19 vaccine in Latin America”.
The Insud Group was born focused on the pharmaceutical industry, which continues to represent about 80% of its turnover. In this sector they own, in addition to mAbxience, Chemo, the group’s first company, which is dedicated to the production of raw materials for the pharmaceutical industry and generic products; and Exeltis, which manufactures and markets drugs under its own brand.
In Argentina, the Sigman and Gold holding company is also a shareholder of the Elea, Biogenesis Bagó, Sinergium Biotech, Maprimed, Chemotécnica and Inmunova laboratories.
They also expanded into other areas such as agribusiness, cultural industries (with Intellectual Capital and The diplomatic worldamong others) of nature and design.
