In the first week of November, BioAgilytix Labs, LLC, a portfolio company of Riverside Partners, purchased Cambridge Biomedical. Both Cambridge and BioAgilytix are contract research organizations (CROs) that develop novel therapeutic biologics and biosimilars, specializing in large molecule bioanalysis.
The transaction expands BioAgilytix’s global footprint and adds further capacity by joining Cambridge Biomedical’s CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited, and GLP-compliant facility with its GxP laboratories in Durham, North Carolina and Hamburg, Germany. It also gives BioAgilytix a total of 400 employees.
The merger follows a busy October for CROs, in which five deals were reported, accounting for roughly 19% of the activity in the Other Services sector for the opening of the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, none of the announcements came with prices, but there are still some worth highlighting.
The publicly traded CRO ICON plc (NASDAQ: ICLR) revealed in late October it bought Symphony Clinical Research, the leading global provider of specialized in-home and alternate-site clinical services, including Phase 1 thru Phase 4 studies, observational studies, clinical trial registries and rescue studies. The acquisition further enhances ICON’s patient, site and data strategy and complements its existing PMG Research and MeDiNova Research site networks in the U.S. and EMEA. Symphony’s services reduce the travel burden for patients which broadens ICON’s recruitable population.
Cato Research, a portfolio company of Water Street Healthcare Partners and JLL Partners, also expanded with its acquisition of Specialized Medical Services-oncology BV, whose services cover the whole value chain from trial design to setup, management, and completion of Phase 1 to 4 oncology trials in more than 20 countries. The combined company will transition to the new name, CATO SMS, by the end of the year. This merger will help CATO and SMS-oncology expand their presence across Europe and North America, strengthen their oncology and regulatory expertise, and broaden their suite of services.
