BATON ROUGE, La., March 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Albemarle Corporation , a leading chemistry service provider to the life sciences industry, has been named as one of the production partners in the supply of intermediate chemicals for the antiviral Tamiflu(R) (oseltamivir), produced by Roche.
Roche announced today that it has expanded its global manufacturing network for the production of Tamiflu to increase capacity for the product. The company also announced that the manufacturing network will include several Roche sites and more than 15 external contractors, including Albemarle, in nine different countries.
The production partners for the various steps of manufacture have been selected primarily “on the basis of their ability to produce substantial quantities of intermediates and finished materials in accordance with Roche’s quality standards in a relatively short time frame,” according to Roche.
“Albemarle is very pleased to be part of the supply chain network Roche has assembled to produce Tamiflu,” said Ed Tatum, global business director for Albemarle’s Fine Chemistry Services unit. “The need to respond to the growing demand for Tamiflu is one of the most important challenges facing the life sciences industry today. We believe that our selection by Roche for this cGMP manufacturing opportunity is further validation of Albemarle’s Fine Chemistry Services capabilities, and we are striving to do our part to ensure that the public health needs for this important product are satisfied completely.”
CGMP are the “current Good Manufacturing Practices” followed by pharmaceutical and biotech firms to ensure that their products and intermediates used to make those products meet specific requirements for identity, strength, quality, and purity.
Albemarle Corporation, headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, is a leading global developer, manufacturer and marketer of highly engineered specialty chemicals for consumer electronics; petroleum and petrochemical processing; transportation and industrial products; pharmaceuticals; agricultural products; construction and packaging materials. The Company operates in three business segments -- Polymer Chemicals, Catalysts and Fine Chemicals, and serves customers in approximately 100 countries. Learn more about Albemarle’s fine chemistry services business at http://www.finechems.com/ and http://www.albemarle.com .
Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world’s leading research-focused healthcare groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. As a supplier of innovative products and services for the early detection, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, the Group contributes on a broad range of fronts to improving people’s health and quality of life. Roche is a world leader in diagnostics, the leading supplier of medicines for cancer and transplantation and a market leader in virology. In 2005 sales by the Pharmaceuticals Division totalled 27.3 billion Swiss francs, and the Diagnostics Division posted sales of 8.2 billion Swiss francs. Roche employs roughly 70,000 people in 150 countries and has R&D agreements and strategic alliances with numerous partners, including majority ownership interests in Genentech and Chugai. Additional information about the Roche Group is available on the Internet (http://www.roche.com ).
Tamiflu is a registered trademark of Roche.
“Safe Harbor” Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Albemarle Corporation’s business which are not historical facts are “forward-looking statements” that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Albemarle Corporation
CONTACT: Mr. Rene Milligan, Corporate Communications, of AlbemarleCorporation, +1-225-388-7106 or rene_milligan@albemarle.com
