Aptuit buys Quintiles drug development units
selling three of its business units, covering preclinical services,
pharmaceutical sciences and clinical trial supplies, to newly
formed company Aptuit.
Aptuit, formed in early July from what was formerly known as Global Pharmaceutical Development Inc, will buy the Early Development and Packaging (EDP business units for around $125 million and integrate them into three in-house units - called Preclinical Technologies, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Packaging & Logistics. The company will then join forces with Quintiles in a two-year collaboration to continue to make these services available to Quintiles clients.
Aptuit has the stated strategy of growing its pharmaceutical services business through acquisition, and said adding in the EDP units will serve as the foundation for the development of its drug development services offering, focused on early stage development.
Meanwhile, Dennis Gillings, chairman and CEO of Quintiles, said: "The commercial agreement will enable Quintiles to continue to make early development services available through the alliance while we grow internally to meet the increasing demand for our services in clinical trials and commercial partnerships."
Gillings also said that the cash injection would boost Quintile's partnering business, and allow greater focus on its clinical services and clinical support services, such as Quintile's global laboratory network.
The EDP units provide services to 19 of the top 20 drug companies worldwide, as well as many of the emerging biotechnology and small to mid-sized pharmaceutical companies worldwide, according to the firm.
Michael Griffith, CEO of Aptuit, said: "We gain an industry-leading team with the right expertise for our business model, a world-class customer base, GMP/GLP facilities, and a range of technologies to support and help drive drug development."
He said the company plans to engineer a better drug development process by helping its clients to identify and integrate new technologies and build 'the industry's first seamless IT system that enables end-to-end customer accessible project management status and test data'.
The three Quintiles business units employ about 1,400 people, primarily in Kansas City, Missouri; Mt Laurel, New Jersey; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Singapore.
