BioIVT continues M&A spree, snapping up Fidelis Research to expand in Europe
Fidelis runs an 85-site collection network in southeastern Europe and offers custom contract research services to pharmaceutical companies and clinical research organizations. Shannon Richey, vice president at BioIVT, explained why the company’s European footprint made it an attractive acquisition target.
“Fidelis has strong relationships with hospital networks in the region and can easily transport specimens to our clients in the area within 24-48 hours. Some specimen types must be fresh in order to work in specific applications. Therefore, it’s critical that we have a robust collection network in Europe that allows us to service the needs of our European research clients,” said Richey.
BioIVT has been highly acquisitive. The company’s website lists 15 businesses that it has bought since 2013. Almost all, 13, of the acquisitions happened from 2017 onward. BioIVT has struck at least two takeovers since publishing the online list, with Fidelis and XenoTech, a contract research organization that it bought in September, among its new acquisitions.
Adding Fidelis to the list of acquired businesses takes BioIVT into new geographies, adding to its existing presence in the US and UK, and provides it with capabilities that are complementary to its existing assets and operations.
“Fidelis has a great reputation in the industry as a supplier of high quality, characterized biospecimens. Our global clients will now have access to samples with actionable clinical, demographic, genetic and outcome data with a focus on oncology, heme-oncology and autoimmune diseases. BioIVT will add specimens collected through the Fidelis network to our NGS annotation program, expanding what is already the largest biorepository of specimens with mutation or genotype data,” said Richey.
Neither party has published the financial details of the takeover. Fidelis grew with the support of investors including Empower Capital, which provided funding in 2017 to support the expansion of the company into Romania, Croatia, Serbia, and Turkey.
