(Yicai) May 22 -- Asymchem Laboratories has acquired a research and development laboratory and production workshops at US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer’s former Sandwich Site in the UK, which will be the Chinese contract development and manufacturing organization’s first European R&D and manufacturing base.

From June, Asymchem will manage the R&D center and production workshops at the Sandwich Site in Kent, and will take over the technical and management teams that used to work for Pfizer, the Tianjin-based company said yesterday.

The move will boost the company’s overseas supply ability. Most of Asymchem's revenue comes from abroad. Last year, 81 percent of its revenue came from other countries at CNY7.8 billion (USD1 billion).

Asymchem will use the site, which was set up by Pfizer in 1954 and used to be a crucial part of the New York-based firm's global small molecule innovative drug R&D and sales, as a hub to expand its overseas footprint in everything from R&D laboratories and trial production to commercialization, it said.

The drugmaker is expanding and strengthening its R&D capabilities in emerging fields such as peptides, nucleic acids, and enzyme technology, as well as increasing its production output in Europe.

Building factories overseas is not only a way to better serve customers, it is also a means to mitigate geopolitical influences, a senior executive at a CDMO firm told Yicai previously.

In recent years, Chinese CDMO companies have increased the number of production bases in Europe.

In 2021, Pharmaron acquired Allergan Biologics, a subsidiary of US drugmaker AbbVie, which is located in Liverpool for USD118.7 million in cash, and in January 2022, the company bought Aesica Pharmaceuticals, located in Cramlington, from Recipharm.

WuXi Biologics has also expanded its presence in Europe with several production bases, including production sites in Ireland and the MFG19 site in Wuppertal, Germany.

Asymchem’s share price on the mainland [SHE: 002821] closed down 0.62 percent at CNY80.52 (USD11.1) today, while its Hong Kong-traded stock [HKG: 6821] closed up 0.6 percent at HKD60.40 (USD7.74).

Editor: Kim Taylor