Axellia Pharmaceuticals AS is a leading manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), serving the global pharmaceutical industry with high quality products and services. The company has a strong position in bioprocess development, chemical synthesis, semi-synthesis and advanced separation and purification technologies.

The Company
Axellia Pharmaceuticals AS (Axellia, for short) is a leading producer and marketeer of fermented anti-infective APIs and injectable finished products. Axellia, with its 770 employees, has production sites in Norway, Denmark, Hungary and China and has more than 700 customers in 70 countries. Axellia represents the former API business of Alpharma Inc and in the spring of 2008 it was acquired by investment funds managed by the private equity firm 3i and members of the management team.

Products & Technologies
Axellia is one of the leading Norwegian biotech companies, with more than 50 years of experience in the development and manufacture of antibiotics. Axellia is recognized for its expertise in fermentation and specialized recovery and purification technologies. During recent years, Axellia has also established a solid platform in chemical synthesis and semi-synthesis.

Axellia specializes in the development of technologically difficult manufacturing processes for high-value APIs, many of which are used in hospitals for the treatment of life-threatening infectious diseases and cancer. The company is also developing and manufacturing finished dosage-form pharmaceuticals (mainly injectables) on behalf of industry customers.

Development & Manufacturing Capabilities
Axellias’s API R&D staff is highly skilled (about one-third have PhDs), with an average of more than ten years in the pharmaceutical industry. Competencies comprise all aspects of classical and modern biotechnology, including:
• Strain development (UV and chemical mutagenesis, recombinant DNA techniques)
• Fermentation and cell cultivation (short and long term, fed-batch)
• Separation and purification techniques (filtration, MF, UF, NF; chromatographic separation; solvent extraction; crystallization)
• Final handling (drying, milling and blending)
• Process scale-up, technology transfer and production implementation

The R&D staff has broad experience in developing organic synthesis strategies and pathways, employs a wide range of analytical methods, is aggressive in seeking IP protection of inventions and has established a broad, international R&D network.

All marketed APIs are manufactured according to GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) at FDA-approved facilities in Oslo, Norway; Copenhagen, Denmark; Budapest, Hungary; and in Taizhou, China. The products are sold globally to more than 700 pharmaceutical companies, many of which are also collaborating with Axellia in developing new products and processes.