Dive Brief:
- Reuters, citing "sources familiar" with the situation, reports that Johnson & Johnson is considering selling off its API manufacturing unit Noramco.
- If true, the sale could be worth as much as $800 million. Buyout firms are reportedly the outfits that have expressed interest in Noramco.
- Noramco produces the active ingredients used in painkillers such as oxycodone.
Dive Insight:
J&J officials have been mum on the potential sale. But if a deal is eventually struck, it would continue on the string of biopharma M&As that reached record levels in 2015 (albeit at one specific juncture of the supply chain).
As FiercePharma notes, GlaxoSmithKline and J&J control most of the manufacturing of active ingredients used in a variety of painkillers.