PharmaZell, the German producer of highly resilient and speciality Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), and France-based Novasep, a leading Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation (CDMO), focused on complex small molecules and Anti-body Drug Conjugates (ADCs), have entered into exclusive negotiations to create a leading European platform in the attractive API manufacturing and CDMO space with a complementary set of differentiated technologies and highly diversified base of blue-chip pharma and biotech customers. 

Novasep is a leading CDMO player developing and manufacturing complex small molecules predominantly for pharma and biotech customers. The company leverages a wide range of differentiated technologies including high energy and cryogenic chemistries and industrial-scale chromatography. It is a world leader in ADC and HPAPI, fast-growing targeted cancer therapy segments.

Novasep's capabilities are highly complementary to PharmaZell's expertise in the manufacturing of complex APIs requiring special handling procedures or technologies. Combining the two businesses would create a leading, highly diversified, and highly differentiated API manufacturing and CDMO platform. The combined business would be able to draw from a comprehensive technology suite for complex molecules and a global production footprint to support pharma and biotech customers over the complete lifecycle of a drug. The combined business would generate nearly Euro 500 million of revenues and employ close to 2,000 employees across seven production and R&D sites in Europe (Germany, France and Italy), two sites in India and one in the US.

The proposed transaction would be backed by PharmaZell's current majority shareholder Bridgepoint. Bridgepoint Group PLC is the world's leading quoted private assets growth investor focused on the middle-market with Euro 27 billion AUM and a local presence in the US, Europe and China.