Cambrex buys Marathon for $26 mill

Cambrex Corp has acquired Marathon Biopharmaceuticals of Massachusetts,USA, for approximately $26 million in cash. The latter manufactures ingredients and purified bulk biologics for preclinical evaluation through to commercial-scale quantities.

Marathon will operate as part of Cambrex Bio Science, a contract biomanufacturing company located in Baltimore, Maryland, while sales and marketing "will be integrated into the Cambrex global pharmaceutical sales infrastructure," the latter said.

James Mack, Cambrex' chief executive, said that, with hundreds of biotechnology drugs in the development pipeline and biomanufacturing capacity shortages, "the additional facility provides us with flexibility and expansion space," adding that it represents "another step in our life sciences growth strategy.''