New York-based private equity firm Arsenal Capital Partners has built on its acquisition of drug discovery, development and safety consultancy Certara last December by snapping up Synchrogenix, a contract research organisation (CRO) specialising in regulatory writing and related services.
No financial details were released on the latest acquisition. Synchrogenix, which will be merged with Certara, has US headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, along with offices in North America, Europe, and Asia, and a permanent staff of more than 50 regulatory writers and editors.
Arsenal described Synchrogenix as “the largest independent regulatory-writing CRO in the world”. The acquired business offers pre-clinical, clinical, chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) and drug-safety writing services, as well as support for global regulatory submissions.
More synergies
Explaining the rationale for the deal, Stephen McLean, partner at Arsenal and co-head of the firm’s Healthcare Group, noted that pharmaceutical companies are looking for better value and more synergies from their outsourcing partners.
“Adding the complementary services Synchrogenix offers to the Certara portfolio will allow Certara to provide its preclinical and clinical pharmacology customers with end-to-end drug-development consulting and writing services, including preparation of regulatory submissions such as the Biologic License Application, Investigational New Drug and New Drug Applications,” McLean said.
Certara history
Certara was formed in November 2008 from the US$57 million acquisition of Pharsight Corporation by Tripos International.
The transaction brought together Tripos, which supplied drug-discovery informatics products and services, with Pharsight, whose speciality was software, strategic and regulatory services to optimise clinical development.
Certara retained Tripos’ base in St Louis, US and incorporated both Tripos and Pharsight as portfolio companies.
With more than 225 employees spread across offices in the US, UK, Canada, and Japan, the Arsenal-owned Certara now provides scientific informatics and analytics, including molecular modelling, population-based simulations, pharmacokinetic analyses and clinical-trial simulations, to pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers worldwide.
