CRO

China's Viva Biotech snaps up Hong Kong CRO SYNthesis to boost preclinical offering

Viva Biotech is putting down $80 million to buy preclinical contract research organization SYNthesis and boost its outsourcing business.

Hong Kong-based SYNthesis is a preclinical small-molecule drug discovery service contract organization selling pharmaceutical chemistry and synthetic chemistry services to its clients.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, it also has service platforms in Suzhou in Shanghai and Australia as well as offices in the U.K. and the U.S.; a part of its plan is to broaden its geographic reach.

It will now fall under the umbrella of Shanghai-based Viva Biotech, an integrated drug discovery platform focused on preclinical-stage innovative drug development, covering the full spectrum of our customers' needs for early-stage drug discovery.

“We are very delighted to achieve the strategic acquisition agreement with SYNthesis. We believe that SYNthesis's technical platform and international team in the field of pharmaceutical chemistry and synthetic chemistry will quickly strengthen the capabilities of Viva Biotech from early drug discovery service to drug R & D downstream business, as well as boost The Company's downstream integration to CMC and CDMO fields,” said Cheney Mao, Ph.D., chairman and CEO of Viva.

“I am thrilled and delighted to have my team at SYNthesis join forces with the Viva team,” added Xian Bu, Ph.D., managing director of SYNthesis. “Our preclinical small molecule pharmaceutical chemistry platform will be organically combined with the structure-based drug discovery and bioassay platforms of Viva Biotech, to provide a comprehensive preclinical R&D services for more customers. Together we will become a force to be reckoned with in the high-end medicinal chemistry space.”