YMC To Acquire LEWA-Nikkiso America, Inc. Pharmaceutical Systems' Business

LEWA remains key supply partner while YMC gains advanced downstream processing technologies and manufacturing site in North America.

YMC to acquire pharmaceutical systems’ business from LEWA-Nikkiso group

YMC Co., Ltd., a leading supplier of separations resins, services and systems for the pharmaceutical market, announced recently that they entered a formal agreement to acquire the pharmaceutical systems business of LEWA-Nikkiso America Inc. Based in Devens, MA, USA this group within the LEWA division of Nikkiso Corporation is a successful provider of advanced production scale chromatography systems for the bioprocessing and the pharmaceutical industry.

The acquisition complements YMC’s existing offering of chromatography columns, systems, services and consumables and allows YMC to strengthen its reach in North America and expand its global systems’ business. The transaction includes staff and assets dedicated to the development, manufacture and sales of batch and continuous HPLC, LPLC, SMB and buffer / caustic dilution systems for the bio/pharmaceutical market. This includes the manufacturing site located in Devens, MA USA. Terms of the agreement were not made public.

Together with this group, YMC expects to offer its global customers an even more comprehensive portfolio of purification-enabling products. YMC’s global sales reach is expected to accelerate the former LEWA bio/pharmaceutical group’s business. The combined operations will be well positioned to capture global growth trends, such as growing demand for continuous processing.

LEWA remains a key element of the business through a long term pump supply arrangement. The LEWA pumps are a basis for the EcoPrime LPLC, HPLC, SMB, Continuous Chromatography and BID (buffer in-line dilution) systems. The deal includes the transfer of licenses with ChromaCon AG and Bayer AG that support the bio/pharmaceutical systems business and certain non-compete clauses.

Ryuji Yamamura, Chief Executive Officer of YMC said, “LEWA has a truly unique and differentiated positioning with its EcoPrime systems and strong awareness among end users, especially those pursuing continuous processing of pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals. Through this acquisition, we will create the first America’s-based manufacturing for YMC. In addition, we believe acquiring LEWA’s extensive experience in precision purification systems and automation for GMP scale equipment can unlock YMC’s mostly untapped growth potential for systems outside of Asia. We are confident that this addition to our portfolio will strengthen our platform and provide an additional vehicle for driving long-term, sustainable growth. It is our intent to retain the full complement of resources at this site and grow the business through bringing more products into the facility.”

Says Peter Castellanos, CEO, LNA “LEWA had great success in gaining industry recognition as an innovative purification systems’ player in the bioprocess space in a short period of time. After being approached by YMC we realized their product portfolio is well positioned to take the next phase of growth for this group. We remain strategically aligned to this business through supply of our pumps and we are committed to facilitating the seamless transition of the business to YMC. Existing customers should see no disruption in present production”.

The business transition is expected to close in Q4 2018 according to business representatives.

About LEWA
LEWA GmbH was founded as a family company by Herbert Ott and Rudolf Schestag in 1952. Today it is the world's leading manufacturer of metering pumps and process diaphragm pumps as well as complete metering packages for process engineering. The Leonberg, Germanybased company developed into an international Group within a few decades and saw further improvement in its position on the world market as part of integration into the Japanese Nikkiso Co. Ltd. in 2009. As a research and production-oriented company, LEWA develops technologies and provides solutions for the vast array of applications among its customers. Its products are used mainly in the oil and gas industry, in gas odorization, in refineries and petrochemicals, as well as in the production of plastics, detergents and cleaners. Additional application areas include the chemical industry, cosmetics industry, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, food and beverage industry, and energy utilities. LEWA currently employs around 1,100 people and owns 16 subsidiaries around the world along with having representatives and sales offices in more than 80 countries. Headquartered in Devens, MA, USA LEWA Bio/Pharmaceutical Technologies is a group within LEWA-Nikkiso America Inc., LEWA GmbH and its parent NIKKISO CO., LTD. Nikkiso & LEWA employees which number over 5000 are committed to serving our customers in more than 100 countries. For more information, visit www.lewapt.com

About YMC Ltd.
YMC is a private Life Science company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 1980, company has over 9 affiliates and facilities throughout Asia, Europe and America. The over 400 employees are providing best-in-class lab and process solutions to the pharmaceutical industry. YMC focus is in the innovation, production and sales of packing materials, packed columns and systems for High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Low Pressure Liquid Chromatography (LPLC) and custom purification and custom synthesis. YMC has recently opened CMO facility and pilot plant incorporating state of the art simulated moving bed (SMB) purification. YMC is also engaged in the production and sales of microreactor systems. YMC’s intellectual assets and know-how cultivated from many years of experience, will continue to push the limits to create a prosperous future for the purification and discovery of small and large molecule therapies. For more information, visit http://www.ymc.co.jp/en/.