Ajinomoto Co., Inc., Tokyo, Japan, has entered a merger agreement to acquire all of the capital stock of Althea Technologies, Inc., San Diego, CA, a leading biopharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), for approximately $175 million (approximately JPY 16 billion). Through this acquisition, Ajinomoto said it intends to strengthen its business foundation and expand in the rapidly growing advanced biomedical field to achieve revenue of JPY 30 billion by 2020.

Closing is expected to occur in April at which point Althea will become a fully consolidated subsidiary of Ajinomoto Co. The transaction will not affect Ajinomoto’s financial performance in fiscal year 2012.