UBE Corporation (President: Masato Izumihara) has agreed to acquire all shares of API Corporation (APIC) wholly owned by Life Science Institute, Inc. (Representative Director: Ryosuke Tanabe), a Mitsubishi Chemical Group Company, and signed a share transfer agreement.

APIC was established in October 2002 through integration of the active pharmaceutical ingredients business and a part of the fine chemicals business which had been run by Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation into Yoshitomi Fine Chemicals, Ltd. APIC is a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) that offers a wide range of services such as synthetic route design, pilot manufacturing, investigational medical manufacturing, and commercial production, by making full use of integrated processes that combine organic synthesis technologies and biotechnologies it has cultivated over many years. APIC is also engaged in the business of proposing, manufacturing, and marketing active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and intermediates using processes developed based on its own proprietary technologies.

In April 2022, UBE made a fresh start, under a new company name, by transforming its management structure into that of a chemicals business holding stocks of companies engaged in the machinery business and the cement-related business. The medium-term management plan, "UBE Vision 2030 Transformation--1st Stage," announced in May 2022, calls for focused investment of management resources in specialty chemicals. The company positions the pharmaceutical business as an important business that will play a role in the sustainable growth of the UBE Group, which pursues global profit expansion with a focus on specialty chemicals.

UBE's pharmaceuticals business is comprised of a licensing business based on drug discovery research and the CDMO business. The acquisition of shares announced today will enable UBE and APIC to mutually utilize their proprietary high-level manufacturing and quality control technologies, jointly develop new technologies, expand their supply chain networks, and leverage the bases of both companies. Through these efforts, UBE will strive to establish a high-quality, stable supply system to meet the demands of the CDMO market, which is expected to continue to grow in the future, to strengthen its presence in the market.

Details of the agreement will not be disclosed.

In addition to the current areas of drug discovery research and CDMO focusing on small molecule drugs, UBE will further expand this business domain to include nucleic acid drugs, and beyond therapeutic drugs, to broadly include life sciences, healthcare, medical sciences, and other areas. In this way, UBE will continue to draw up further medium- and long-term strategies for its pharmaceutical business and contribute to healthier lives for people.

Overview of API Corporation