Thermo Fisher Bets $20 Billion on Leading CRO
The laboratory and diagnostics giant Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO) announced a huge deal for an international contract research organization (CRO) last week. Thermo Fisher is buying PPD, Inc. (NASDAQ: PPD), a leading CRO providing broad, integrated drug development, laboratory and lifecycle management services. Its customers include pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, academic and government organizations. The company has offices in 47 countries and more than 26,000 employees. Its headquarters is based in Wilmington, North Carolina. Thermo Fisher is offering $17.4 billion for PPD, or $47.50 per share for the company, a premium of approximately... Read More »
CROs Are Back in Demand
Last year was not kind to contract research organizations (CROs). CROs typically provide discovery and development services to companies in the Medical Device, Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology sectors, conducting clinical trials and providing a wealth of R&D support. Demand for their services have seen a gradual rise over the last decade for a variety of reasons. An increasing number of start-ups have popped up in the Biotechnology sector, and they don’t have the resources or infrastructure that major players would have to oversee the complex R&D needed to bring a drug to market, so they often outsource much of that task to CROs. Second, big pharma and biotech are increasingly... Read More »
ICON Acquires PRA Health Sciences
The contract research organization giant ICON plc (NASDAQ: ICLR) is growing its market reach through the acquisition of PRA Health Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRAH). The deal is valued at $12 billion, with the per share merger consideration consisting of $80 in cash and 0.4125 shares of ICON stock. The consideration represents an approximately 30% premium to PRA’s closing price as of February 23, 2021. The transaction value comes out to around 3.77x revenue and 20.2x EBITDA, annualized. PRA is one of the world’s leading global contract research organizations by revenue, providing outsourced clinical development and data solution services to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.... Read More »
Thermo Fisher Acquires Henogen S.A.
After a surprise collapse of its takeover bid for QIAGEN N.V. (NYSE: QGEN), Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO) is back with a new deal in 2021. Thermo Fisher is buying Henogen S.A. from Groupe Novasep SAS for approximately EUR 725 million ($877.5 million) in cash. Based in Belgium, Henogen S.A. is a viral vector manufacturing business that provides contract manufacturing services for vaccines and therapies to biotechnology companies and large biopharma customers. Groupe Novasep partners with a variety of industries to provide technically optimized and economical solutions for the life science industry. Henogen has two facilities and approximately 400 employees with substantial... Read More »