Albany Molecular Research, Inc. to buy Chicago-area research facility

24-Sep-2001

Albany Molecular Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMRI) today announced the signing of a definitive agreement to purchase Great Lakes Chemical Corporation’s (NYSE: GLK) laboratory facilities in Mt. Prospect, Illinois. Substantially all of the scientific personnel currently operating at this facility are expected to become AMRI employees. The transaction is scheduled to close today, September 21, 2001, subject to customary closing conditions.

Under the terms of the agreement, AMRI will purchase an 88,000 square-foot, fully equipped laboratory facility for $10 million in cash. The site includes chemistry synthesis labs, which contain 55 fully equipped scientific workstations; as well as a two-bay, non-GMP chemical pilot plant; research fermentation facilities; associated analytical support; scale-up fermentation capacity; and supporting office space.

The facility is located on 5.5 acres in Mt. Prospect, which is approximately 20 miles from downtown Chicago and ten minutes from O'Hare International Airport. The facility currently houses about 50 Great Lakes Fine Chemical scientists with expertise in a range of chemical and biochemical disciplines, including chemical process development, analytical chemistry, biocatalysis, microbiology, fermentation, and asymmetric synthesis.

Included in the purchase agreement is a royalty-free research license allowing AMRI to use patent-protected technology developed at the site. Additionally, AMRI will have access to a microorganism collection of over 1,000 strains, including 500 proprietary strains. Great Lakes has retained the right to commercialize any developments of this technology.

"This purchase provides AMRI with a modern facility, fully equipped and staffed, with room for considerable expansion," said AMRI Chairman and CEO Thomas E. D'Ambra, Ph.D. "Being in the metropolitan Chicago area gives us a hub near a large number of Midwest-based customers, and a potential recruiting pool different than we might see on the East Coast. More importantly, the people, technologies and expertise at this facility form an excellent complement to AMRI capabilities. The biocatalysis and fermentation technologies bridge the next step in optimization and scale up of discoveries coming out of our combinatorial biocatalysis and natural products groups. Furthermore, we will be able to fill the currently unoccupied laboratories to add to our existing process research and chemical development resources."

Great Lakes Fine Chemicals General Manager Simon Sellers said, "This move is an important step in our near-term strategic initiative to enhance the competitiveness and profitability of our Fine Chemicals business. Great Lakes is strengthening its UK-based research and development facility to be completed in the fourth quarter and has established a research and development agreement with AMRI through which many current and future new product initiatives will continue to be supported."

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/4830/albany-molecular-research-inc-to-buy-chicago-area-research-facility.html