WuXi Biologics divests German drug product plant in $168M deal with Terumo

China’s WuXi Biologics is selling its drug product (DP) plant in Leverkusen, Germany for approximately $168 million to Japan’s Terumo Corporation. The deal, subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to be completed in 2025.

The Chinese contract research, development and manufacturing organization (CRDMO) said divesting the Leverkusen facility aligns with its long-term growth plans and “will allow WuXi Biologics to exclusively focus on building large-scale global DP manufacturing capacities in Singapore.”

Last year, WuXi Biologics broke ground on a new 13.5-hectare CRDMO center in Tuas Biomedical Park, Singapore, which will provide integrated biologics research, development and manufacturing services. The site will add 120,000L of manufacturing capacity to its global network and is expected to employ 1,500 staff.

WuXi Biologics said in Wednesday’s announcement that it has completed a strategic review of its facilities and will focus on building and developing its current sites. The company is building a $300 million manufacturing facility in Worcester, Massachusetts, which will be completed in 2027.

The CRDMO credited last year’s growth, in part, to the utilization of existing and newly expanded capacities including the ramp-up of production sites in Europe. However, in January 2025, WuXi Biologics announced it was selling its vaccine manufacturing facility in Dundalk, Ireland, for approximately $500 million to Merck, known as MSD outside of the U.S. and Canada.

Japan-based Terumo in a separate announcement on Wednesday said the acquisition of the GMP-compliant plant in Germany from WuXi Biologics will expand the production capacity of its contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) business — whose globalization is part of Terumo’s growth strategy.

“By establishing a new CDMO production base in Europe, Terumo aims to strengthen its global operations to meet the growing needs of pharmaceutical companies both domestically and internationally,” Terumo said in a statement.

Terumo will use the German plant, which has a site area of 13,000-meters and about 150 employees, for the development and production of prefilled syringe products and vial products. The company has CDMO factories in Fujinomiya, Kofu and Yamaguchi.

In December 2023, Terumo expanded the production lines at the Yamaguchi factory and is in the process of installing new production lines at Kofu’s new building, which is currently under construction and scheduled for completion in fiscal 2025.