PCI Pharma Services to Acquire US-based Aseptic Fill-Finish CDMO Ajinomoto Althea

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PCI Pharma Services to Acquire US-based Aseptic Fill-Finish CDMO Ajinomoto Althea

2025-04-24 15:02 Last Updated At：15:21

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 24, 2025--

PCI Pharma Services (“PCI”) – a leading global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) focused on innovative biopharma therapies – is acquiring an entire equity stake in Ajinomoto Althea, Inc. (“Althea”), a US-based sterile fill-finish CDMO and 100% subsidiary of Japan-based Ajinomoto Co., Inc. Scheduled for completion in May 2025, the acquisition provides PCI with its first-ever North American manufacturing location for prefilled syringes and cartridges – including isolator technology for these formats – as well as high potent manufacturing suitable for antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).

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Althea’s robust clinical- and commercial-stage services for injectable drug products augments PCI’s deep industry experience, aligning with the company’s global sterile fill-finish capabilities and established expertise in advanced drug delivery. In addition, Althea’s substantial knowledge base, skillsets and capacity in scalable, custom oligonucleotides and peptides complements PCI’s existing manufacturing capabilities in complex formulations and lyophilization across a broad range of injectables – including nanoparticles, mRNA, MABs, proteins, and other biologics for delivery formats such as vials, bottles, prefilled syringes and autoinjectors.

The acquisition also adds high potent vial filling with lyophilization, making PCI one of very few US-based CDMOs capable of producing the emerging oncology modality of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). Building upon PCI’s legacy in high potent molecules, the strategy creates an end-to-end offering for clients via specialized capabilities across the globe, and broadens its biologics development and manufacturing leadership.

For PCI’s advanced drug delivery systems and drug-device combination business, Althea’s assets supplement PCI’s leadership position in final device assembly and packaging facilities in both Europe and North America. Acquiring Althea’s San Diego campus also makes PCI one of the largest manufacturing centers in the US West Coast’s biopharma stronghold and is a natural extension of PCI’s current clinical trial services and early phase robotic sterile fill-finish capabilities, creating a scalable, flexible manufacturing complex with state-of-the-art facilities within minutes of each other.

“To continue supporting the needs of our customers in their endeavors to bring life-changing therapies to patients, PCI continues to make sizable investments in the sterile fill-finish category that bring additional capabilities, capacity and technologies into our portfolio,” said Salim Haffar, CEO of PCI Pharma Services. “Welcoming Althea into the PCI family expands our capabilities to support several therapeutic and drug delivery modalities, including the emerging ADC marketplace, and complements our broad end-to-end solutions alongside clinical trial services and advanced drug delivery.”

About PCI Pharma Services

PCI is a world-leading CDMO, providing clients with integrated end-to-end drug development, manufacturing and packaging capabilities that increase their products’ speed to market and opportunities for commercial success. PCI brings the proven experience that comes with more than 90 successful product launches each year and over five decades in the healthcare services business. The company currently has 30 sites across seven countries (Australia, Canada, U.S., Ireland, Wales, Germany and Spain), and over 7,000 employees working to bring life-changing therapies to patients.

Leading technology and continued investment enable PCI Pharma Services to address global drug development needs throughout the entire product life cycle – from manufacturing capabilities through the clinical trial supply chain and commercialization. Its clients utilize PCI as an extension of their business, and a collaborative partner with the shared goal of improving patients’ lives. For more information, visit pci.com.

NATO weighs a US demand to massively hike defense spending as some struggle to meet the current goal

2025-05-15 18:10 Last Updated At：18:20

ANTALYA, Turkey (AP) — NATO foreign ministers on Thursday debated an American demand to massively ramp up defense investment to 5% of gross domestic product over the next seven years, as the U.S. focuses on security challenges outside of Europe.

At talks in Antalya, Turkey, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that more investment and military equipment are needed to deal with the threat posed by Russia and terrorism, but also by China which has become the focus of U.S. concern.

“When it comes to the core defense spending, we need to do much, much more,” Rutte told reporters. He underlined that once the war in Ukraine is over, Russia could reconstitute its armed forces within three to five years.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio underlined that “the alliance is only as strong as its weakest link.” He insisted that the U.S. investment demand is about “spending money on the capabilities that are needed for the threats of the 21st century.”

The debate on defense spending is heating up ahead of a summit of U.S. President Donald Trump and his NATO counterparts in the Netherlands on June 24-25. It's a high-level gathering that will set the course for future European security, including that of Ukraine.

In 2023, as Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine entered its second year, NATO leaders agreed to spend at least 2% of GDP on national defense budgets. So far, 22 of the 32 member countries have done so.

The new spending plan under consideration is for all allies to aim for 3.5% of GDP on their defense budgets by 2032, plus an extra 1.5% on potentially defense-related things like infrastructure — roads, bridges, airports and seaports.

While the two figures add up to 5%, factoring in infrastructure and cybersecurity would change the basis on which NATO traditionally calculates defense spending. The seven-year time frame is also short by the alliance’s usual standards.

Rutte refused to confirm the numbers under consideration, but he acknowledged that it's important to include infrastructure in the equation, “for example to make sure that bridges, yes, are there for you and me to drive our cars but also if necessary to make sure that the bridge will hold a tank. So all these expenditures have to be taken into account.”

It’s difficult to see how many members would reach a new 3.5% goal. Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Italy, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain are not even spending 2% yet, although Spain does expect to reach that goal in 2025, a year past the deadline.

The U.S. demand would require investment at an unprecedented scale, but Trump has cast doubt over whether the U.S. would defend allies that spend too little, and this remains an incentive to do more, even as European allies realize that they must match the threat posed by Russia.

Europe-wide, industry leaders and experts have pointed out challenges the continent must overcome to be a truly self-sufficient military power, chiefly its decades-long reliance on the U.S. as well as its fragmented defense industry.

“There is a lot at stake for us,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys said. He urged his NATO partners to meet the investment goals faster than the 2032 target "because we see the tempo and the speed, how Russia generates its forces now as we speak.”

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said his country should reach 2.5% by 2027, and then 3% by the next U.K. elections planned for 2029.

“It’s hugely important that we recommit to Europe’s defense and that we step up alongside our U.S. partners in this challenging geopolitical moment where there are so many precious across the world, and particularly in the Indo-Pacific,” he said.

As an organization, NATO plays no direct security role in Asia, and it remains unclear what demands the Trump administration might make of the allies as it turns its attention to China. The last NATO security operation outside the Euro-Atlantic area, its 18-year stay in Afghanistan, ended in chaos.

Cook reported from Brussels, and Fraser from Ankara, Turkey.