Biotest sells Boca headquarters, U.S. therapy business

Biotest Pharmaceuticals has sold its U.S. therapy business, which includes its Boca Raton headquarters and plasma production center, to ADMA Biologics of Ramsey, N.J.

The $40 million deal gives Biotest equity in and distribution rights to ADMA’s product, as well as future product distribution in Europe.

In Boca Raton, buildings at 5800 and 5900 Park of Commerce Blvd. are now part of ADMA Biologics in a transaction that included cash, a loan, equity and property.

Included in the assets to be transferred are the Boca Raton headquarters, Biotest’s plasma center and commercial products, and contract manufacturing agreements, according to Biotest’s news release.

At the same time, Biotest receives equity interest in ADMA’s stock, takes ownership of two ADMA plasma centers in the U.S. on Jan. 1, 2019, and receives distribution rights to ADMA’s product designed to prevent infections in immune-compromised patients.

“Biotest is now a significant shareholder of ADMA,” said Dr. Bernhard Ehmer, CEO and chairman of parent company Biotest AG in Dreieich, Germany.

In 2014, Biotest pharmaceutcals was named bioscience company of the year at the the eMerge Americas conference in Miami, and employed more than 850 people nationwide, including 500 in Florida.

From 2009-2014, Biotest collected $200,000 in economic incentives from Florida for creating 50 new jobs in Boca Raton. Palm Beach County matched $40,000 of those funds, said Sherry Howard, the county’s deputy director.

ADMA is a biopharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures and has plans to commercialize specialty plasma-based biologics for the treatment and prevention of primary immune deficiency disease and certain infectious diseases.