CBI targets “boom” in peptide outsourcing market

By Nick Taylor

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Amino acid

Commonwealth Biotechnologies (CBI) is set to acquire China-based peptide manufacturer GL Biochem, which it believes will create a dominant force in the non-GMP segment of the market.

CBI believes the purchase will cement its position in the sector and enable it to capitalise on the growth it anticipates on the markets for good manufacturing practice (GMP) peptides, custom antibodies and specialty amino acids.

Paul D’Sylva, director of CBI and chairman of Mimotopes, said: “Peptides make up only a small proportion of the pharmaceutical products on the market today but represent one of the fastest growing classes of new drugs because of their high activity and specificity, low toxicity and high degree of potential chemical diversity​. “

CBI believes these traits will help the market for peptide drugs achieve a compound annual growth rate of 7.5 per cent and be worth $13.4bn by 2010. This growth should result in an upturn in outsourcing of peptide manufacturing, which CBI believes it can benefit from.

D’Sylva added: “The increased interest in peptides as therapeutics has triggered a boom in the outsourcing of peptide reagents and custom peptide synthesis, core business areas for both GL Biochem and Mimotopes. The proposed transaction with GL Biochem would make CBI the largest global player in the non-GMP segment of this market​.”

Over the past five years privately owned GL Biochem has posted compound annual revenue growth of over 40 per cent, with due diligence showing that in 2008 it had a net income of $2m (€1.4m).

In addition the acquisition of GL Biochem fits with CBI’s China-strategy. GL Biochem now employs over 800 people and claims to be the largest manufacturer of research-grade peptides and peptide reagents globally.

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