MDS to sell Central Labs to Chiltern owner

By Nick Taylor

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Mds pharma services Contract research organization

MDS Pharma Services’ Central Labs division is to be acquired by Czura Thornton, a private investment group that owns Chiltern, for approximately $8m (€5.4m) as part of the CRO’s repositioning.

The contract research organisation (CRO) has already agreed to sell its late stage business, and the early phase operations are also up for sale, as MDS Inc reorganises to focus on its Nordion medical isotope division.

MDS will receive approximately $8m from the sale, including transaction services, and Czura Thornton could pay up to an additional $4m if certain performance thresholds are achieved by Central Labs following the closing of the deal.

In 2006 Czura Thornton acquired Chiltern and, although Central Labs will be run separately from the CRO, Nick Thornton, co-founder of the private investment group, said they will work together closely.

Czura Thornton is due to complete the acquisition of Central Labs, which employs 600 people, in the fourth quarter of 2009. Following completion of the deal MDS Pharma Services will be focused on discovery through to Phase IIa.

The deal does not include bioanalysis operations at the MDS Pharma Services facilities in Lincoln, Nebraska; Lyon, France; Montreal, Canada; and Zurich, Switzerland.

David Spaight, president of MDS Pharma Services, explained the sale will allow the company to “play to our strengths and concentrate on what we do best​”. In keeping with its activities throughout the repositioning process MDS has sought to reassure clients.

In a letter the clients Renzo DiCarlo, vice president & general manager of MDS Pharma Services, said that “ongoing programmes will continue to be executed smoothly and without interruption​”.

DiCarlo added that he anticipates a “seamless transition​” and that following the divestiture Central Labs will benefit from being “a leaner organisation dedicated to quality, agility and innovation​”.

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