Astorg Partners has signed an agreement with International Chemical Investors Group (ICIG) to acquire CDMO CordenPharma.

According to French private equity firm Astorg, ICIG chose to sell contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) CordenPharma after a strategic portfolio review, which concluded its aim to focus more on its chemicals portfolio.

Under the terms of the deal, ICIG  will reinvest as partners with Astorg to develop CDMO would further.

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“We look forward to having the opportunity to partner with ICIG and [CordenPharma’s] founders, Michael Quirmbach and the broader management team to drive our joint vision and growth ambitions. We will leverage our expertise in pharma services and our global network to help further develop the company through both organic and external initiatives,” said Signe Michel, director Healthcare Investments at Astorg.

Astorg says that CordenPharma has demonstrated robust growth due to its experience with drug modalities such as messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, peptides, and high-potency compounds notably for oncology therapeutics. Furthermore, the firm serves over 250 blue-chip pharma and biotech customers across these technology platforms.

“The transaction is the result of our thematic sourcing effort in pharma services. We identified the [firm] as a leading CDMO focused on some of the most promising areas of pharma R&D and with a strong customer focus and unique innovation capabilities,” said Judith Charpentier, partner and Head of Healthcare at Astorg.

CordenPharma offers end-to-end capabilities from early-stage development through to commercial large-scale production and employs over 2,600 people in eleven manufacturing facilities and one R&D plant located across Europe and the US.

The terms of the transaction were not disclosed and remains subject to customary regulatory approvals.

CordenPharma made news in January 2021 when the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a complete response letter for Leqvio (inclisiran) due to ‘unresolved facility inspection-related conditions’ at a third-party site run by the CDMO.