Azelis steps up its pharma presence in Italy through the acquisition of Deafarma S.r.l.

Azelis, a leading distributor of speciality chemicals and food ingredients, is delighted to announce it has entered into exclusive discussion with Deafarma S.r.l. (Deafarma), an Italian distributor of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).

Highlights & rationale

• The pharmaceutical industry requires technical advice of experts due to stringent regulatory requirements. Therefore, Azelis is well positioned since the distributor is renowned for its innovative technical solutions to customers.

• The acquisition allows Deafarma and Azelis to better serve their customers and principals.

Azelis will acquire 100% of Deafarma, with all employees joining the Azelis team, including both founders, who started the company in 1998. In addition to distribution of APIs, Deafarma supports its customers with a wide range of services, such as the search for new APIs, regulatory affairs assistance and new pharmaceutical dossier support.

Marco Gerosa, Regional Managing Director Italy, said:

“Deafarma has an excellent reputation in the market and we are delighted to welcome them to Azelis. Mrs. Gorla and Mr. Minin have established a strong relationship with their customers and principals. The company is known for the flexibility they offer to customers, high service levels, quick feedback, exemplary regulatory support and assistance for new pharmaceutical dossier development. We are impressed by their business development projects. There is an excellent strategic fit that supports our further growth in the region, allowing us to provide an improved product offering and customer reach on one side, while making us more attractive to our existing principals on the other. Our aim is to offer our customers in Italy the full pharma range of products”

Mrs. Natalia Gorla and Mr. Leonardo Minin, Founders and Managing Directors of Deafarma, commented:

“We have always had the high quality service to customers at the heart of our business. Joining Azelis will enable us to focus more on business development whilst leveraging Azelis’ global network. This will be beneficial for us and all our business partners and will open up new growth opportunities on both sides.”

Azelis has a strong focus on application development and innovation and this has not gone unnoticed in the industry as the company has won 13 innovation awards in the last three years only. Azelis runs 55 application laboratories worldwide, including two for pharma.

The acquisition of Deafarma illustrates the support provided by EQT since the initial acquisition of Azelis. EQT is confident that the expanded range of services and global reach provided by this acquisition will continue to bring benefits to customers and principals of the combined group.

Transaction is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2019.