Merck & Co. said Thursday it agreed to buy closely held Avecia Biologics Ltd. of the U.K. for an undisclosed price, part of the traditional drug maker's push into biotech treatments.
Avecia Biologics operates a contract manufacturing business making products for other drug companies. Merck said it was attracted to its technology for making the complicated therapies out of bacteria and yeast cells, rather than the mammalian or insect cells typically used in biologics manufacturing.
Merck, based in Whitehouse Station, N.J., said it already has a development and supply relationship with Avecia Biologics and that the acquisition gives the U.S. company "an operational facility staffed by an experienced work force that is highly skilled in a broad portfolio of bioprocess systems."
Merck last year established a unit to make copycat versions of the biotech treatments and in 2006, the company acquired GlycoFi Inc., which specializes in optimizing the production of biotech molecules. Other traditional drug companies also are getting further involved in biotech offerings, especially seeing profit opportunities when the medicines lose their patent protection.
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