Vertellus buys antiretroviral API reagent plant from Dow

By Dan Stanton

- Last updated on GMT

Vertellus has bought Dow's sodium borohydride (SBH) in Elma, Washington
Vertellus has bought Dow's sodium borohydride (SBH) in Elma, Washington

Related tags Dow chemical company

Specialty chemicals firm Vertellus will continue to supply antiretroviral drugmakers sodium borohydride following its takeover of a Dow plant in Washington State.

Located in Elma, Washington, the facility produces the chemical sodium borohydride (SBH) used as a reagent in the manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for antiretrovirals used to treat HIV/aids.

The plant was bought by the Dow Chemical Company in 2009 through its $15bn (€13bn) takeover of the Rohm and Haas Chemicals firm in 2009​, and this week the facility has been acquired by ingredient-maker Vertellus, which told in-Pharmatechnologist.com it will honour existing contracts and look to grow the customer base further.

“The Elma site is capable of meeting current global demand for the product serving multiple applications and markets,”​ said Global Sales Director, Mark Lewis.

“We will look to continue to serve the existing global client base while at the same time look to add new customers. We expect there to be very little change in the ongoing business,”​ he told us, which will come as some relief to the estimated 75 workers at the plant

While SBH is also used bleaching applications – in mechanical wood pulping for newspaper and tissue production, for example – most of the volume produced at Elma is used by the life science industry, predominantly as a synthesis and process aid in the production of APIs.

Vertellus will look to expand capacity if market growth warrants the investment, Lewis said, though for now “demand is relatively stable with attractive growth in APIs used in antiretroviral applications.”

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