Producer
DFE Pharma
Specialty pharmaceutical-grade lactose company (HQ Goch, Germany; joint venture between Fonterra Co-operative Group and FrieslandCampina); the world's largest producer of pharmaceutical-grade lactose for use as a drug excipient in tablets, capsules, and dry powder inhalers. DFE Pharma's lactose (Pharmatose® brand) is used in the vast majority of pharmaceutical tablet and capsule formulations globally — most pills you take contain DFE Pharma lactose as a filler, flow agent, or binder. DFE Pharma's manufacturing combines Fonterra (NZ) lactose raw material expertise with FrieslandCampina (NL) processing capability. The same Fonterra-FrieslandCampina lactose joint venture that makes the excipient in most of the world's pharmaceutical tablets also produces food-grade lactose for infant formula.
2
Inputs supplied
2
Goods downstream
1
Facilities
0
Stories
What they make
2 inputs DFE Pharma supplies
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Oral Solid Dose Lactose Excipients (Pharmatose Brand)
55%Inhalation-Grade Lactose (Inhalac Brand)
30%Dairy Ingredients (Fonterra/FrieslandCampina Heritage)
15%
Intelligence
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Did you know2023
DFE Pharma (Goch, Germany; Fonterra/FrieslandCampina JV) is the world's largest pharmaceutical lactose producer — the Pharmatose® brand is the standard filler in the vast majority of the world's pharmaceutical tablets, capsules, and dry powder inhalers. Virtually every solid dosage form prescription drug you have ever taken (aspirin, ibuprofen, blood pressure tablets, antibiotics) likely contains DFE Pharma lactose as a filler, binder, or flow agent. DFE Pharma simultaneously produces food-grade lactose for infant formula (the same dairy byproduct in a less stringent quality tier). The same Fonterra-FrieslandCampina joint venture is the invisible material common to: your infant formula, your blood pressure tablet, and the dry powder asthma inhaler. Infant formula supply chain and pharmaceutical supply chain share the same production facility and the same raw material — differentiated only by quality tier and documentation package.
DFE Pharma ↗Origin2023
DFE Pharma B.V. is a 50/50 joint venture between Fonterra Co-operative Group (New Zealand, the world's largest dairy exporter, owned by ~9,000 NZ farmer-shareholders) and FrieslandCampina (Netherlands, a large European dairy cooperative owned by ~14,000 European farmers). The combination means that the world's largest pharmaceutical excipient lactose company — whose Pharmatose lactose is in the vast majority of tablets and capsules manufactured globally — is owned equally by New Zealand and Dutch dairy farmer cooperatives. The pharmaceutical excipient business grew from the whey processing operations of both dairy groups: lactose is extracted from cheese whey as a high-value byproduct, then purified and milled to pharmaceutical specifications. Fonterra's global dairy scale and FrieslandCampina's European pharmaceutical processing expertise combined in DFE Pharma to create a pharmaceutical supply chain company embedded in the global medication delivery infrastructure — a cooperative dairy venture that has no equity public shareholders, yet supplies a critical ingredient in most medications globally.
DFE Pharma B.V. ↗