US-based contract research organisation Ockham has boosted its global scale and its specialist capabilities in cancer trials by acquiring Nexus Oncology, a niche CRO that operates across Europe, North America and Australasia from headquarters in Roslin, Scotland.
Financial details of the cash-and-shares deal were not disclosed, although Ockham noted thatacquiring the privately held Nexus Oncology also brought it an institutional investment partner.
Founded in 1999, Nexus has a staff of more than 120 and conducts Phase I-III oncology trials in a variety of tumour types.
The combined entity will operate under the name Ockham and will be led by that company’schief executive officer, James Baker, together with a joint Ockham and Nexus management team.
Nexus Oncology will now be known as Nexus Oncology, an Ockham company.
Clare Wareing, founder of Nexus, will continue with the new organisation as chief scientific officer, while the consolidated company’s board of directors will include representatives from the existing Ockham and Nexus boards.
Top tier
With the addition of Nexus, Ockham has a total of around 300 employees across 12 countries, “placing it among top-tier niche CROs worldwide”, the company stated.
With the merger come enhanced global scale, depth of oncology-specific therapeutic expertise and “new levels of operational excellence”, Ockham added. The combined organisation is “more strongly positioned to deliver oncologic clinical trials of all sizes across the drug development spectrum”, it said.
Ockham is “excited to have Nexus as part of our family as we move forward in our quest to be the number one global oncology and specialty services CRO in the world”, Baker commented.
According to Wareing, the deal enables Nexus to “realise a long-held ambition of being a global full-service oncology CRO with a larger geographic footprint and a wider and deeper service offering”.
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