PE firm brings CROs together, putting assay development and testing under one roof
Through the acquisition, Pacific Biomarkers will merge with Neomed-Labs. Both are bioanalytical contract research organizations (CROs) specializing in assay development, biomarker validation, and high-throughput clinical sample testing.
Together the companies will support clinical trial sponsors with efficacy and drug safety testing from preclinical through Phase IV clinical studies.
The goal of the acquisition and merger, according to Ampersand, was to establish of a phase of growth for the now combined company and provide clinical laboratory testing for the pharma, IVD, and biotech markets.
The transaction was concluded less than 3 months after Ampersand and Neomed institute management bought-out Neomed-Labs. Ampersand focuses exclusively on investments within healthcare companies. The group has previously worked in acquisitions and mergers of companies such as Key Biologics, Sarepta Therapeutics, and MedPharm.
Neomed-Labs CEO Benoi Bouche told us, “We believe clinical immunology services to be a high growth segment having ample room for improved services to the industry and lacking of a pure play world champion.
“We want to be in this position at a foreseeable horizon of time and will multiply organic and inorganic initiatives to reach that goal.”
Bouche added, “As a matter of fact in the clinical immunology segment, pharma companies are in a situation where they have to choose either the assay development scientific knowledge, that they will typically find within academic groups too small to run fully automated labs or the high-throughput capacities that they will find within global central labs whose size and business model don’t position them well for fit for purpose developments.”
However, he said finding both “under the same roof is almost impossible.”
Together the companies will establish an expanded business and build a center of excellence for clinical immunology and specialty biomarker testing services. A global management team will be built over time under Bouche to streamline the merger and complete these goals.
Neomed-Labs has worked on the development, qualification, and validation of more than 30 assays in US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) filing. Ten of which became marketed vaccines with cumulative sales of roughly $3bn.
