Kedrion, a biopharmaceutical company specialising in the development, production and distribution of plasma-derived medicinal products, announces that, having received the approval from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), it has finalized the transaction previously announced on May 2nd relative to the purchase of certain assets from Grifols S.A. and the commercial and manufacturing agreement between the two companies. The agreement with Kedrion had been reached in order to satisfy the conditions set forth by FTC following the merger of Grifols S.A. and Talecris Biotherapeutics Holdings Corporation. 

Under such agreements, Kedrion has acquired from Grifols a plasma-fractionation plant in Melville (State of New York) which Grifols will manage for up to four years, plus two US plasma collection centres (in Mobile, Alabama, and in Winston Salem, North Carolina). 
 
In addition, such agreements cover a 300,000 litres contract manufacturing agreement for the fractionation and purification of Kedrion’s own plasma for the production and distribution of IVIG and Albumin under Kedrion’s private label, and Factor VIII under the trade name Koate, all of them for sale by Kedrion only in the US. Finally, Kedrion has purchased from Grifols the Talecris’ FVIII US business (Koate).  
 
Assets and properties acquired under such transaction will be run by the newly-incorporated Kedrion Biopharma Inc. based in Fort Lee, New Jersey, except for the two collection centres which will be managed by ABS (Kedrion Group).  
 
«We are very pleased with this transaction – stated Paolo Marcucci, President and CEO of Kedrion –, because it helps strengthen our role on a global scale and enter a market, the US one, in which the quality standards are among the highest in the world». 
 
In the United States, Kedrion has already been present for some years with the plasma collection centres of Kingsport, Bristol and Johnson City in Tennessee, Reseda in California, Pensacola in Florida and Mobile in Alabama.  
 
"At the same time as this transaction – Marcucci added –, we are going ahead with our plans for the registration of our Albumin in the US market, which is expected to be concluded soon, and with our strategy to expand the plasma collection centres". "On a global scale, our growth and development strategies also involve covering new foreign markets, strengthening our European markets, and retaining our leadership in Italy. We pursue these goals with commitment, care for product quality and excellent technological standards that are our distinguishing features".