Swiss Pharma Powerhouse Acino Expands into Latin America with M8 Pharmaceuticals Acquisition

Acino, a Swiss pharmaceutical company headquartered in Zurich, recently announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire M8 Pharmaceuticals (M8), a fast-growing specialty biopharmaceutical company, headquartered in Mexico City and focused on licensing, marketing, and distributing innovative and established medicines in Mexico and Brazil.

Through this acquisition, Acino will enter the two largest pharmaceutical markets in Latin America, significantly expanding its geographic footprint and strengthening its position in the region, providing a more powerful and comprehensive offering for healthcare professionals and patients. The acquisition will complement Acino’s existing Latin American division, which is based in Panama and operates across eight countries in Central America, the Caribbean, and Ecuador, delivering high-quality medicines to improve people’s health in this key region.

Success in Exclusive Licensing Agreements

M8, a Montreux Growth Partners portfolio company, has a highly successful record of signing exclusive licensing agreements with large pharmaceutical and biotech companies for the rights to market and commercialize products in Latin America. M8 brings a portfolio of well-known proven brands and innovative products, a best-in-class deal-making platform and an outstanding reputation among its partners. Moreover, it has built a large pipeline across a broad range of key therapeutic areas, including CNS, cardiometabolism, respiratory, gastroenterology, oncology and hematology, and rare diseases.

Andrew Bird, Interim CEO at Acino commented: “This is a transformative deal for Acino, significantly expanding our presence in Latin America and delivering against our overall strategy and stated intention to increase patient’s access to high-quality pharmaceuticals and diversify our footprint in key high-growth markets. We see M8 and Acino as highly complementary offerings, and we are confident that we can use this acquisition as a catalyst to further increase value and accelerate growth for Acino in this key region.”

Joel Barlan, CEO at M8 commented: “This agreement will provide M8 with considerable additional resources, expertise, and access to a much wider geographic footprint, which will further accelerate our growth. We look forward to leveraging the skills and capabilities of both teams to grow the combined business and continue to bring proven and innovative treatments to patients and caregivers throughout Latin America and other emerging markets.”

Dan Turner, Managing Director at Montreux Growth Partners commented: “We could not be more pleased with what M8 has achieved during our ownership. We first invested in the early stages of its development. We were able to bring on board a world-class management team, who have focused the company on patient critical therapeutic areas, with a product portfolio that now includes over 30 leading brands from major pharmaceutical companies around the world. The company has delivered tremendous growth and profitability, while also doing much good for the lives of patients. Acino is the perfect acquirer to continue that history of success”.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including antitrust clearance, and is expected to be completed by the end of 2023. Banco J.P. Morgan S.A. is acting as exclusive financial advisor, Goodwin LLP as exclusive legal advisor, and PWC as exclusive accounting and tax advisor to Acino. Stifel, Cooley LLP and Credit Suisse, a UBS Group Company acted as advisors to M8.