Wuxi Biologics Acquires a Drug Substance Facility from Bayer with Heuking

A team led by Dirk W. Kolvenbach, Partner at the Düsseldorf office, and Michael Pauli from the Cologne office of Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek provided legal advice to WuXi Biologics, a global company with leading open-access biologics technology platforms, on the acquisition of a drug substance facility from Bayer AG. The signing took place on December 21, 2020. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory assessment, is expected to close in the first half of 2021.  

With the signing of the agreement, Bayer and WuXi Biologics have entered into a long-term sublease and service agreement. Bayer will provide various services to WuXi Biologics during the start-up of the facility for the production of vaccines and other biologics, contributing its own resources. The transaction volume, including the lease agreement, is approximately €150 million.

The facility at the Pharmaceuticals Division site in Wuppertal, Germany, will be used for the production of highly demanded substances for COVID-19 vaccines and other biologics. WuXi Biologics plans to make additional investments in process equipment at the site.

"It was also a special transaction for us as a law firm," says Dirk W. Kolvenbach. "We were extremely pleased to be able to support our client WuXi Biologics in building up such an important production capacity, and thus also to make an essential contribution to vaccine production in Germany on a legal level.“

WuXi Biologics is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and is a leading global open-access technology platform for biologics. The company offers end-to-end solutions to empower organizations to discover, develop and manufacture biologics from concept to commercial manufacturing.

For Dirk Kolvenbach's team, this is not the first transaction for WuXi. Heuking had already advised WuXi on the acquisition of the pharmaceutical formulation plant in Leverkusen from Bayer at the beginning of 2020.

Advisors WuXi Biologics
Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek:
Dirk W. Kolvenbach (Corporate Law/Project Coordination), Düsseldorf
Michael Pauli, LL.M. (Corporate Law/Project Coordination), Cologne
Mathis Dick, LL.M. (Real Estate), Düsseldorf
Michael Below, (Public Law), Düsseldorf
Dr. Bodo Dehne (Investment Control), Düsseldorf
Wolfram Meven (Tax Law), Düsseldorf
Dr. Rainer Velte (Antitrust Law), Düsseldorf
Fabian Gerstner, LL.M. , Munich
Bettina Neheider (both Construction Law), Munich
Dr. Tobias Plath, LL.M. (Insurance Law),
Torsten Groß, LL.M. (Labor Law),
Sarah Radon, LL.M. (Commercial), all Düsseldorf