Porton Fine Chem buys fellow China intermediates firm Dongbang
The Chongqing-headquartered firm will pay $41.5m (€39.3m) - $16m in cash and the rest in stock – for Dongbang, funding the takeover through a recent private placement through which it raised $11m.
Porton makes chemical intermediates for antivirals, blood pressure lowering agents, analgesics and diabetes medications. The firm also makes nicotine for electronic cigarettes, for which it holds a Certificate of Suitability (CEP) from the EDQM.
The Dongbang acquisition will add the cholesterol lowering chemicals rosuvastatin and atorvastatin, the actives in Pfizer’s Lipitor and AstraZeneca’s Crestor, to Porton’s portfolio.
Porton completed an IPO in January last year, joining the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The firm operates a good manufacturing practices (GMP) facility in Chongqing that was set up in collaboration with Jacobs Engineering in 2010.
The company's US subsidiary, Porton Americas, was founded in 2008 and is based in Verona, New Jersey. The unit sell chiral intermediates, chiral synthons, unnatural amino acids, and heterocyclic compounds to the US drug industry.
