Acino buys more Cephalon/Mepha businesses

Swiss branded and generic drugmaker Acino Pharma (SIX: ACIN) and Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (Nasdaq: TEVA) have entered into an agreement for Acino to additionally acquire the Latin American (LATAM) and Asian businesses of Mepha and the Mepha site in Aesch, including production and R&D facilities, for a total consideration of 94 million euros ($122.6 million) Teva will market and develop the Mepha brand in Switzerland.

Mepha is a subsidiary of US biotech Cephalon, which was recently acquired by Teva for $6.8 billion. Earlier this year, Acino also agreed to purchase Mepha’s Middle Eastern and African business (MENA) for around 80 million euros (The Pharma Letter October 18, 2011).

The site in Aesch (Canton Basel-Landschaft, Switzerland) comprises a US Food and Drug Administration-compliant manufacturing facility, office space and an R&D unit focused on the development of oral formulations. Also as part of the agreement, Mepha will transfer a number of its existing generic R&D development projects to Acino, and will continue to source products from the former Mepha site in Aesch. Employees working in production, R&D and related units will be given the opportunity to continue their employment as part of the Acino organization.