The acquisition also includes a contingent payment of up to US$19m (Euros 15.8m) based on Brecon achieving specific earnings targets in 2006.
Brecon, which has recently doubled the size of its existing facilities in Hay-on-Wye, Herefordshire with an additional 45,000 ft2 of production and warehouse space, employs 280. It is among the UK's leading contract packing and clinical trial material companies, providing packaging services for pharmaceuticals destined for sale throughout Europe and Asia.
R David Yost, AmerisourceBergen ceo, says: "The addition of Brecon Pharmaceuticals enhances our contract packing business and provides the added capability to offer pharmaceutical manufacturers contract packing and CTM services in new geographies. This purchase also supports AmerisourceBergen's strategy of focusing on serving the manufacturers and healthcare providers in the pharmaceutical channel."
Fortune 500 company AmerisourceBergen is headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, employs more than 13,000 staff and has an annual turnover of over US$54bn (Euros 45.2bn). It already owns a major US contract pharma packaging company, Anderson Packaging, with seven US facilities, which provides "physician samples" and retail contract packaging to pharmaceutical manufacturers
Vice-president, corporate and investor relations Michael Kilpatric says: "The purchase of Brecon will not only open up new UK sales channels in the UK and Europe for AmerisourceBergen, but will also provide new opportunities for Brecon in the US and Canada. We anticipate large pharma companies increasingly outsourcing non-core activities, such as packaging, in future and are confident Brecon's capabilities and expertise will fit well with ours."
