MOSCOW (MRC) -- Bayer is selling a biologics substance facility at the company's Wuppertal, Germany, site part of its pharmaceuticals division to a German subsidiary of biopharmaceutical company WuXi Biologics (Wuxi, China), said Chemweek.
Under the agreement, the two companies will also enter into a long-term sublease agreement and a transitional service contract. WuXi Biologics intends to use the facility to manufacture drug substances for COVID-19 vaccines and other biologics, and is planning additional investments in process equipment at the site.
Bayer will provide services and contribute its own resources as WuXi Biologics ramps up the plant for the production of vaccines and other biologics. “This also marks an additional contribution by Bayer in the fight against the pandemic,” says Bayer site manager Timo Flessner.
The overall value of the transaction, including the sublease agreement, amounts to approximately EUR150.0 million (USD184.5 million). The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in the first half of 2021. Bayer had originally planned to use the facility to produce recombinant factor VIII products.
WuXi Biologics acquired a biologics plant at Leverkusen, Germany, from Bayer early this year.
As MRC informed earlier, Bayer swung to a third-quarter net loss of EUR2.74 billion (USD3.21 billion) from a net profit of EUR1.04 billion a year earlier on sales of EUR8.51 billion, down 5.1% on a currency- and portfolio-adjusted basis. The net loss includes non-cash impairment charges on intangible assets, and provisions, totaling EUR10.18 billion.
As MRC reported earlier, Covestro has closed the sale of its European polycarbonates (PC) sheets business to the Munich-based Serafin Group effective January 2, 2020. This includes key management and sales functions throughout Europe as well as production sites in Belgium and Italy.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall consumption of PC granules (excluding imports and exports to/from Belarus) rose in January-October 2020 by 21% year on year to 79,500 tonnes (65,600 tonnes a year earlier).
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