"Welcoming Althea’s talented professionals into the PCI family strengthens our commitment to turnkey customer partnerships and, ultimately, our dedication to helping improve patient outcomes through life-changing therapies.”
In welcoming the prominent San Diego-based aseptic fill-finish CDMO to the PCI family, we’ve enhanced our capabilities by enabling sterile fill-finish services for high potent liquid and lyophilized formulations, including antibody-drug conjugates.
Furthermore, this acquisition expands our capacity to process advanced injectable delivery systems, supporting products from clinical trials to commercial stages, including prefilled syringes and vials.
We are excited to share this latest news of our acquisition of Ajinomoto Althea, Inc., a San Diego-based sterile fill-finish CDMO and subsidiary of Japan-based Ajinomoto Co. Joining forces with the Althea team allows us to complement our deep expertise in several categories – including sterile fill-finish, lyophilization and high potent capabilities. The addition of a sterile fill-finish line for the processing of potent drug products complements PCI by delivering a solution for the development and manufacturing of antibody-drug conjugates and other targeted therapies, a growth area within the biopharmaceutical landscape.
Althea’s established clinical and commercial-stage services for prefilled syringes and vial-contained injectables complement the advanced drug delivery and drug device combination therapies we already offer. This latest acquisition positions us ahead of the market, allowing us to provide the solutions our global customers require.
This latest landmark is part of our long-term strategy, building upon our legacy skills with services to further drive our end-to-end full CDMO service offering across several critical areas of client need.
The acquisition of Althea is an important milestone in a multifaceted sterile fill-finish (SFF) strategy. We’ve made sizable investments in recent years and experienced substantial organic growth in our sterile fill-finish service offering. As part of our strategy, enhancing our US capabilities in high potent sterile fill-finish and bolstering our clinical to commercial scale prefilled syringe service solutions is key to meeting our customers’ ongoing needs. Althea’s longstanding, well-earned reputation for producing novel biologics in various injectable formats from US-based facilities ensures we can deliver on our strategy and provide the additional services our clients require.
For more information relating to our capabilities in both high potent manufacturing, lyophilization and sterile fill-finish, please click here:
For more information relating to our capabilities in both high potent and sterile fill-finish development, please click below:
This acquisition provides the following:
This latest acquisition is a natural next step in our evolution in the development, manufacturing, clinical, and commercial packaging of advanced drug delivery systems, including prefilled syringes, cartridges, and autoinjectors with a true focus on patient-centricity to support our global customer base.
This acquisition follows the 2024 announcement, where we committed infrastructure investments exceeding $365 million to support the clinical and commercial-scale final assembly, packaging, and testing of drug device combination products (DDCs), with an emphasis on injectable formats. Comprising new and expanded facilities in Europe and North America, the effort further bolsters our ability to manage the complete lifespan of DDCs, from sterile drug product development and manufacturing through clinical trial supply, commercialization, product launch, and beyond.
For more information on our capabilities in advanced drug delivery and drug device combination solutions, please click here:
With the acquisition of Althea in place, our sights are set on becoming among the first CDMOs to bring whole-lifespan development of advanced drug delivery and drug device combination products under one corporate roof. This effort involves marrying efficiencies and streamlining the journey from clinical stages through launch and commercialization, supported by cold chain storage solutions providing end-to-end service.
The acquisition also adds high potent vial filling with lyophilization, making PCI one of the very few US-based CDMOs capable of producing the emerging oncology modality of anti-body drug conjugates (ADCs). Building upon our legacy in high potent molecules, the strategy creates an end-to-end offering for clients via specialized capabilities across the globe and broadens the biologics development and manufacturing leadership.
For our advanced drug delivery systems and drug device combination business, Althea’s assets supplement our leadership position in final device assembly and packaging facilities in both Europe and North America. Acquiring Althea’s San Diego campus establishes us as one of the largest manufacturing centers in the biopharma hub on the U.S. West Coast. This acquisition is a natural extension of our existing clinical trial services and early-phase robotic sterile fill-finish capabilities. It creates a scalable and flexible manufacturing complex with state-of-the-art facilities all in close proximity.
Thank you Team Althea
We sincerely thank the exceptional pharmaceutical services team at Ajinomoto Althea for collaborating with us on the next phase of our CDMO journey. From ADC services to US-produced prefilled syringes and beyond, our commitment to turnkey, end-to-end solutions is further strengthened by your trust, talent, and teamwork.
