Capsugel, Xcelience and Powdersize have entered into an agreement under which Capsugel will acquire both Xcelience and Powdersize, enhancing Capsugel’s position as a provider of dosage forms and solutions to healthcare customers around the world.

“The additions of Xcelience and Powdersize accelerate Capsugel’s strategy to expand our service offerings through continued investments in new capabilities and technologies,” said Guido Driesen, president and chief executive officer, Capsugel. “The expertise and high levels of service that we gain in this transaction will make us an even stronger, more-differentiated partner as we collaborate with pharmaceutical companies to bring better medicines to patients.”

Xcelience’s and Powdersize’s key capabilities augment Capsugel’s model of advancing customer products through an integrated approach to the design, development and manufacture of dosage forms. As a result of this transaction, Capsugel will add:

• Premier clinical development, manufacturing, packaging, labeling and distribution services;
• specialized commercial manufacturing capabilities and a pipeline of customer product programs that complement Capsugel’s existing pipeline of early- and late-stage customer projects in such areas as specialty therapeutics and orphan disease; 
• additional infrastructure for the handling of highly potent and controlled substances, complementing Capsugel’s existing specialized handling capabilities at its pharmaceutical dosage-form sites in the U.S., France, and the UK;
• micro-dosing capabilities for powder-in-capsule evaluations, as well as micronization capabilities for addressing dissolution or stability challenges, that augment the company’s speed-to-clinic solutions; and
• particle-engineering expertise that complements the company’s overall formulation capabilities, most notably its wide range of bioavailability enhancement offerings.

“We are ready to take Xcelience to the next level, and Capsugel’s global scale, commitment to science and engineering, and technology breadth and depth make it the right partner to get us there,” said Derek Hennecke, president and chief executive officer, Xcelience. “Our collective customers will have access to a robust suite of design and development capabilities, as well as best-in-class clinical supply solutions and commercial manufacturing of innovative dosage forms.”

“We are thrilled to join forces with Capsugel,” said Wayne Sigler, chief executive officer, Powdersize. “Our capabilities in particle-size reduction are a natural fit with Capsugel’s bioavailability enhancement suite of technologies and services. Our clients will benefit from the capabilities that the combined entity can now offer.”

Upon completion of the transaction, both Xcelience and Powdersize will be integrated with Capsugel’s dosage form solutions business unit, which has built a premier offering in bioavailability enhancement, a complete range of modified release solutions and a growing suite of applications in other areas, including bio-therapeutics, inhalation and pediatric formulations.