Tocris Bioscience completes $40m management buy out
the major pharmaceutical companies, universities and research
institutes has completed a $40m (€30.8m) management buy out (MBO)
from its founders.
Tocris will continue to be led by Laurence Ede, managing director, and Andrew Birnie, finance director but they will be joined by Tony Kenny of Momentum Corporate Finance as chairman. The MBO, backed by the Royal Bank of Scotland and the managers themselves, will allow the freedom to develop its business areas and offer additional products and services.
"The MBO represents the next major step in our plan to make Tocris the undisputed supplier of choice in the life science sector and ensures that as we grow, the Tocris brand will continue to be synonymous with great-value products of unparalleled quality and efficacy," Ede told DrugResearcher.com.
The company, which has seen 20 per cent growth in sales in the first two quarters of the current financial year, is the leading provider of neuroscience research tools and has a market share of over a third of the market. Its biggest competitor in the neuroscience sector is Sigma Aldrich with its Sigma-RBI product line of products for cell signalling and neuroscience.
Tocris supplies an exclusive range of over 1,700 products, including neurochemicals, signal transduction agents, peptides and biochemicals that are supplied to more than 50,000 scientists worldwide.
The new management plans to expand the company's range of peptides and antibodies, especially within the neuroscience field as well as broadening their off the shelf kits for researchers: Tocrisceen and Tocriset. It also plans to make its sophisticated supply chain function available to customers to assist them in tracking down hard to find research materials.
Ede continued: "Tocris products are highly specialised in nature and typically very difficult to produce. Our customers rely on our unique expertise to ensure that the materials they need for their research are of the highest purity, conform to specification and are backed up by knowledgeable technical support."
Many of these chemicals are exclusively licensed to Tocris and sold for medical research purposes with permission from the major pharmaceutical companies who own the relevant patents.
Ede said: "Tocris also has a long history in custom synthesis, with a particular expertise in the synthesis of complex small molecules."
"The MBO has had a really energising effect on the company, the staff are delighted to have the opportunity to see it grow, it's been fantastic."
Ede explained that the move "has given the company the opportunity for further investment and gives us the flexibility to do even more what our customers want, as a stand-alone independent supplier they can trust."
Professor Phil Parsons, founder director and head of organic chemistry at the University of Sussex, told DrugResearcher.com: "the board accepted the MBO unanimously and we are very pleased to see the company go forward in this very positive way."
