Cardinal Health finalises sales of pharmaceutical technologies

Cardinal Health has announced that it has completed the sale of its pharmaceutical technologies and services unit to the Blackstone group for a price of $3.3 billion (1.67 billion pounds).

The company’s pharmaceutical technologies and services segment provides outsourced services and modern technologies to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and consumer health industries and is involved in the development, manufacturing and packaging of pharmaceutical products worldwide.

Generating over $1.7 billion each year, the business unit produces medication in most dosage forms and offers clients proprietary manufacturing technology for drug manufacturing.

John Lowry, chief executive officer of the business unit, said: “We are pleased to begin this new chapter in our history.”

He added that the company had a proven track record of providing clients with novel solutions and reliable service and would seek to improve the value offered to customers following this transaction.

The Blackstone group commented that biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms will increasingly rely on outsourcing companies for the manufacturing, packaging and development of products, with the outsourcing industry being in its early stages of growth in this field.

Earlier this year, Cardinal Health announced that it had completed the sale of its healthcare marketing services segment to Platinum Equity.