Sale of Alkermes facility in Athlone is completed
Alkermes plc last week announced it had completed the sale of its development and manufacturing facility in Athlone, to Novo Nordisk.
The Chief Executive Officer of Alkermes, Richard Pops, paid tribute to the Athlone workforce, which currently numbers around 400.
"We are grateful to the Athlone team for their unwavering dedication and commitment over the years to manufacturing important medicines for patients around the world," he said.
The sale, which was first announced in December last, involved a payment of $91 million for the facility and for related assets.
"With the completion of the sale of the development and manufacturing facility in Athlone, Ireland, we delivered on a significant element of our multi-year program to drive operational efficiency and further align our infrastructure and cost framework with the anticipated needs of our business," said Pops.
Alkermes and Novo Nordisk also entered into subcontracting arrangements to continue some development and manufacturing activities currently performed at the Athlone facility for a period of time and possibly up to the end of 2025. Alkermes will continue to retain all royalty revenues associated with products currently manufactured at the facility.
Alkermes took over from Elan in 2011, having completed the $960 million purchase of Elan Drug Technologies.
In December, Novo Nordisk said the purchase provides extra manufacturing capacity for future products “The acquisition of the Athlone facility represents an expansion of Novo Nordisk’s global manufacturing setup and will provide Novo Nordisk with additional development and manufacturing capacity for current and future oral products,” said Thilde G. Hummel Bøgebjerg, Senior Vice President, Product Supply Emerging Technologies, Novo Nordisk, at the time. “With this acquisition, we are excited to soon welcome approximately 400 highly skilled colleagues currently employed by Alkermes with valuable capabilities within oral drug development and manufacturing who will play a key role in serving even more patients with oral products.”