Injectables demand helped drive PCI's latest acquisition of Welsh packaging and logistics firm Biotec

22-Sep-2014 - Last updated on 30-Nov-2023 at 15:24 GMT

PCI has bought packaging and distribution firm Biotec Services International citing demand for cold chain services from a growing injectibles market.

PCI, owned by Frazier Healthcare, has been growing both its pharma services offering and global footprint in the past few years and the acquisition of Bridgend, Wales-based firm Biotec Services International adds packaging, storage and distribution capacity, as well as consultative services for clinical trial supplies.

The additional services for investigational products are “very complementary” to PCI, CEO Bill Mitchell told Outsourcing-Pharma.com, more than quadrupling capacity to store, package and ship Cold Chain products.

“Biotec offers a specialization in support of Cold Chain products, including storage conditions down to -196C, which adds a dimension to the logistics offerings PCI provides clients,” he said, which is an area PCI has focused on for both commercial and investigational products. “This is driven primarily from the biotech injectibles market.”

Biotec’s expertise in this area made them very attractive, he continued, and the acquisition is the latest in “capital expansions in support of refrigerated and frozen storage” by the firm.

“The Biotec acquisition provides additional logistical support for those products in investigational trials and the far reaching destinations for their clinical trial execution. This is further complemented by our new North American Clinical Storage and Distribution site opening this month, which adds capacity and specialized Cold Chain expansion.”

The deal sees PCI add around 60 employees to its workforce and when asked if there would be any overlap of service and loss of jobs, Mitchell said: “We are focused on growth and do not anticipate any ‘scale down.’”

Penn Pharma

Last year PCI bought fellow Wales-based firm AndersonBrecon - the contract packaging business of AmerisourceBergen – for $308m (€239m) and just six weeks ago spent $215m on another Welsh firm, contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) Penn Pharma.

“The Penn Pharma acquisition also brought an additional element of support for drug development and drug manufacturing, which is a natural adjacency for our traditional services,” Mitchell said.

Both Biotec and Penn bolster PCI’s global footprint, he added, which is key to the firm’s longer term strategies. “As our clients have global development needs, we need and want to be responsive in providing them the solutions they require for bringing lifesaving medicines to patients in need around the globe.”