NEW YORK — IFF and Roquette have entered into a definitive agreement under which New York-based IFF will sell its Pharma Solutions business unit to Roquette, La Madeliene, France, for an enterprise value of up to $2.85 billion. The Pharma Solutions unit develops and manufactures pharmaceutical excipients, and it includes IFF’s Global Specialty Solutions unit supporting industrial and methyl cellulosic food applications.
“We are excited to enter into this partnership with the talented Pharma Solutions team at IFF, which has grown into the go-to partner in the pharmaceutical excipients and specialty solutions markets globally,” said Pierre Courduroux, chief executive officer of Roquette. “The combination of our excipients expertise with IFF Pharma is a fantastic opportunity to become a true global specialist of drug delivery and oral dosage solutions, responding to the needs of our customers and to the demands of patients who are looking for continuously better treatments.”
Roquette opened a pharmaceutical innovation center near Philadelphia in 2023.
IFF’s Pharma Solutions unit operates 10 research and development and/or production sites globally with about 1,100 employes. It generated about $1 billion in revenue in 2023. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2025.
“An important next step in our portfolio optimization strategy, the sale of Pharma Solutions, along with other recent actions such as our dividend rightsizing, represents a significant step toward our commitment to reducing debt leverage to three times or below,” said Erik Frywald, CEO of IFF. “This also enables us to increase focus on the core drivers of long-term profitable growth and maximize value for our shareholders.”
