Woodbury-based Kindeva, a 3M spinoff, acquires iPharma Labs

Woodbury-based Kindeva Drug Delivery, which develops and manufactures pharmaceuticals for other companies, has acquired San Francisco-based iPharma Labs.

Terms of the deal, which closed late Wednesday, were not disclosed. The addition of iPharma expands Kindeva's ability to develop inhaled respiratory medicine for pharmaceutical customers, including nebulizers, dry-powder inhalers and metered-dose inhalers.

"It puts us in a position of being able to help people from the very, very early concept idea that they have ... all the way through to commercial manufacturing," said Aaron Mann, CEO of Kindeva.

Kindeva was started by Maplewood-based 3M. The business, previously called 3M Drug Delivery, traces its history to 1956 with the introduction of the first metered-dose inhaler.

In 2020, 3M spun off Kindeva as an independent company after a private-equity group, New York-based Altaris Capital Partners, acquired the business for $650 million. 3M retained a 17% stake in the drug-delivery company.

Altaris has a notable presence in the Twin Cities. It also owns St. Paul-based Minnetronix Medical and recently acquired Arden Hills-based Intricon Corp.

Kindeva has more than 1,000 employees and four manufacturing facilities — in Minnesota, Northridge, Calif., and two in the U.K. Approximately half of Kindeva's employees are in the U.K.

Kindeva's Woodbury headquarters are in a brand new 136,000-square-foot building that was completed in August. One of its two research and development labs is there while the other is in the U.K. The privately held company does not disclose its revenue.

IPharma launched in 2016.

Looking to the future, Kindeva's CEO said the company may acquire more companies.

"We think acquisitions are a nice way to augment the very strong organic growth that we've got in our pipeline," said Mann.