CRO

After acquisition rumors, Amulet Capital Partners buys out SynteractHCR

U.S. healthcare equity firm Amulet Capital Partners has acquired major CRO SynteractHCR in what is the investment group’s first M&A.

Last month, Reuters reported that the CRO was looking for a $1.5 billion buyout deal--terms of the Amulet acquisition have not however been made public. SynteractHCR had annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of around $160 million.

San Diego, CA-based SynteractHCR was founded in 1995 and is now a top 20 full‐service CRO. It was since 2008 majority-owned by Gryphon Investors, a middle-market private equity firm based in San Francisco.

SynteractHCR has over 800 staff members across 21 countries. This is the first acquisition by Amulet, founded just last year by Ramsey Frank and Jay Rose. 

SynteractHCR CEO Wendel Barr said: “We welcome this new relationship with Amulet Capital Partners as they understand our positioning and the opportunities available to us. New funding will allow us to enhance our full service capabilities, hire even more international clinical development experts to support global trials, and increase our ability to help our clients successfully navigate the complex drug development process.”

Ramsey Frank, partner and co-founder of Amulet, added: “The importance of CROs to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries has grown significantly in the last decade, and the current market dynamic is very favorable for middle market CROs, particularly those focused on small and mid-sized biopharma clients.

“SynteractHCR is a leading CRO with global scale and solid earnings momentum, well positioned to take advantage of the strong long-term growth prospects in the sector.  We are excited to partner with Wendel Barr and his experienced management team to continue to expand SynteractHCR’s business.”

The company provides outsourced support to pharmaceutical companies, from drug development to marketing.

It has since grown further through acquisitions, with one of the biggest coming in 2013 when it acquired Germany’s Harrison Clinical Research--rebranding itself as SynteractHCR and expanding its reach to 16 countries.

- check out the release