Dive Brief:
- Contract manufacturer Catalent on Tuesday said it will acquire Juniper Pharmaceuticals, picking up the Boston-based company and its pharma services unit in a $133 million deal.
- Catalent will pay $11.50 per share to buy Juniper, which represents a 32% premium to Juniper's closing share price on July 2.
- Juniper and its nearly 150 employees will expand Catalent's capabilities in formulation development and clinical-scale oral dose manufacturing, the contract manufacturer said.
Dive Insight:
The acquisition of Juniper is Catalent's third major deal in as many years, following buyouts of Cook Pharmica in 2017 and Pharmatek Laboratories in 2016.
At the same time, Catalent has invested to expand its facilities in San Diego and Somerset, New Jersey. Together with the site in Nottingham, U.K. that it will gain through buying Juniper, the CMO envisions the three locations functioning as a network for its clinical development support business.
That Nottingham site appears to be a key factor in Catalent's decision to acquire Juniper. The site, which consists of two facilities covering 38,000 square feet, functions as the base of operations for the acquired company's pharma services business.
Juniper earned $15.5 million in revenue over the first three months of the year. Only $5.5 million of that total, however, was attributable to its pharma services business. The rest came from product revenues, in particular a progesterone gel called Crinone that Juniper licensed to Merck KGaA.
Catalent said it will continue to support the manufacture and supply contract Juniper had signed with the German Merck.
Research of Juniper's intravaginal ring pipeline was previously licensed to Daré Bioscience and Catalent will not be involved in any further development.
Catalent expects the deal to close sometime in the next three months.