Cambrex revealed plans spend $120 million to expand its Iowa manufacturing operations on the heels of a report last month that its owner was seeking a sale.
The investment, which is part of the company’s effort to meet increased demand for API development and production services, will support a 40% boost in capacity at the 45-acre Charles City, Iowa, facility, the company said in an Oct. 22 press release.
The site—touted as the largest independent API facility in the U.S.—will be able to reach nearly 1 million liters of annual production capacity when the project is completed, according to the company.
“With rising demand for U.S.-based supply chains for critical therapies, Cambrex is focused on supporting the long-term stability of pharmaceutical manufacturing in the United States,” Thomas Loewald, Cambrex's chief executive, said in the release. “We are seeing very strong demand from our customers to partner with Cambrex to utilize this expanded capacity.”
The expansion announcement comes about a month after a report by the Financial Times that Cambrex's owner, private equity company Permira, was looking to sell the CDMO for as much as $4 billion amid growing investor interest in the drug manufacturing sector.
Investor interest has also been fed by the Trump administration’s onshoring drive, with the president and others in the government repeatedly threatening to impose steep drug import tariffs.
Last year, CDMO giant Catalent sold itself to Novo Holdings in a blockbuster deal valued at about $16.5 billion.
Permira is looking to attract private equity buyers for Cambrex and had reached out to about a dozen possible suitors, the FT said, citing multiple people familiar with the matter.
Permira acquired Cambrex in a $2.4 billion deal in 2019.
Over the summer, Cambrex announced that a subsidiary, Snapdragon Chemistry, had expanded its capabilities in Massachusetts to help clients with their peptide work.