Novartis offloads 2 Spanish finished-dose facilities to Swiss contract manufacturer

With cell and gene therapies on the rise, Novartis has made a big shift in recent years away from manufacturing older, less-profitable drugs. Now, the company is offloading two of its Spanish production plants to a Swiss manufacturer looking to jump into the big leagues. 

Swiss CDMO Siegfried picked up two Novartis manufacturing sites in Spain to help flesh out its finished drugs portfolio for injectable eye meds, inhaled capsules and oral solid-dose meds, Siegfried said last week. 

As part of the deal, Novartis will secure capacity at both sites, including “multiyear purchase agreements” for drugs produced there, according to a release. The facilities will have enough capacity to meet Novartis’ demand as well as bring on additional clients, Siegfried said. 

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, and a Siegfried spokesman could not be reached for comment by press time. 

The two facilities, which employ roughly 1,000 workers, will complement Siegfried’s existing capacity in eye injectables and solid-dose drugs and bring the CDMO’s revenues over $1 billion, the company said. 

The El Masnou site, which specializes in ophthalmic injectables and sterile filling, will partner with Siegfried’s sites in Irvine, California, and Hameln, Germany, to boost production, the company said. The Barberà del Vallès facility will add “large-scale capacity” for oral solid-dose drugs and inhaled products to complement Siegfried’s facility in Malta. 

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