Decrease in sales results in company’s acquisition of pharmaceutical facility

Fujifilm is reportedly buying a facility in Morrisville that makes ingredients used in biotechnology drugs, expanding the Japanese photography company's foothold in the Triangle's pharmaceutical industry.

Source: The News & Observer Publishing Company

Fujifilm has announced plans to acquire a contract manufacturing subsidiary of Merck that includes Diosynth's 110,000-square-foot factory on 80 acres. The factory makes products for pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the United States, Europe and Japan.

Merck acquired the Diosynth division in 2009 as part of its $49 billion purchase of rival Schering-Plough, according to newsobserver.com. Since then, Merck has been consolidating operations and cutting jobs to make that deal pay off.

Fujifilm is seeking to offset slowing sales of its digital cameras and equipment for medical scans by expanding into drug development, especially for biotech medicines.

Read the full-length article here.

- Edited by Amanda McLeman, Plant Engineering, www.plantengineering.com