AMRI has a new name — and plans to acquire a company in Southern California.
The Albany-based drug development company — now called Curia — has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Integrity Bio Inc., a privately held firm that specializes in the formulation and fill-finish of biopharmaceuticals in preclinical and clinical development.
Integrity Bio’s clients range from startups to Fortune 500, and the company says it typically completes more than 60 projects each year. The company, which has locations in Thousand Oaks and Camarillo, more than doubled its manufacturing capacity with a recent facility expansion.
“The addition of Integrity Bio is a great fit with our growth strategy and our existing expertise, enhancing our biologics drug product formulation development as well as our fill-finish network. Integrity Bio also adds West Coast coverage to Curia’s East Coast and European capabilities,” said John Ratliff, Curia chairman and CEO, in a press release.
Curia is a contract research, development and manufacturing organization that serves the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries. The company says its services are meant to help clients move ideas to commercialization.
The company has more than 3,100 employees in 21 locations worldwide. Before the acquisition, that included more than 600 chemists, 70 biologists, 225 senior scientists and roughly 400 quality and regulatory specialists. Curia said Monday that it had 564 active patents and has produced more than 20 treatments included on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines.
The announcement of the Integrity Bio acquisition comes the day after the rebrand to Curia, which the company says better positions it for continued growth in the life sciences industry.
“The name Curia is derived from a Latin word for purposeful assembly and references Curia’s patient-inspired mission,” the company said in a statement.
“Our new name reflects the assembled deep expertise of our people, the breadth of our products, services and solutions, and our relentless determination to help customers advance from curiosity to cure,” Ratliff said in a statement. “Our new brand honors our foundation in research and innovation while creating a platform for our ambitions of life-changing science so we can make ever-growing contributions to improving patients’ lives.”
There may be another acquisition in the works. Bloomberg reported Monday that Curia was also in talks to acquire the Massachusetts-based LakePharma, a company that specializes in the research, development, and manufacturing of biologics.
Curia is backed by private equity firms The Carlyle Group of Washington, D.C., and GTCR LLC. The firms purchased the company in 2017 for $21.75 a share, approximately $920 million.
