Med device specialist CRO nearly doubles size with EU acquisition

20-Oct-2013 - Last updated on 21-Oct-2013 at 08:47 GMT

The acquisition will boost Clinlogix's presence in the EU

Medical device specialist CRO Clinlogix has nearly doubled its number of employees with the acquisition of German contractor ikfe CRO GmbH.

The acquisition will boost Clinlogix’s European operations, also based in Germany, which specializes in first-in-man medical device device studies, but also offers full service development of drugs, and diagnostics, with expertise in diabetes, cardiovascular disease and oncology. About 75% of the CRO’s work is in medical device trials.

JeanMarie Markham, CEO of Clinlogix, told Outsourcing-Pharma.com that first-in-man studies are the company’s “sweet spot,” because of its strong network of scientists, which are necessary to conduct these types of trials.

As far as the decision to purchase ifke, Markham said, “Germany is the most stable country in the EU, which is why we wanted to set up there. It gives us access to the other countries, especially for medical device studies, such as Germany, Switzerland,” which is where a lot of first-in-human studies are done.

The companies also do not have any mutual clients, according to Markham.

She noted that Clinlogix is looking to work with small startups and mid-size device companies trying to bring their products to the US and EU market. A lot of larger competitors of Clinlogix -- like Quintiles, which recently announced plans to purchase Novella -- have a global footprint, Markham said, “but there is a need for a company with a global footprint and to have that flexibility” in terms of pricing.

“On the device side, it’s a fragmented industry – there are a lot of regionally based companies, but other than the larger ones, I’m not that familiar with others that have the US and EU and South American access to conduct this research,” Markham said.

The company in July also expanded into Latin America with a new office in Medellin, Colombia. That office aims to be a part of a hub assisting academic inventors, allowing public and private companies to validate their early and later stage technologies.

As far as further expansion, Markham, speaking from Japan, said the company over the next two years is “looking into Asia, of course, and Israel and Australia.”