CRO

Alira Health snags 3rd acquisition in 12 months to boost biometrics presence in Europe

Alira Health has committed itself to the M&A hunt the past two years and now the Framingham, Massachusetts-based life sciences advisory firm has inked its third deal in 12 months on Tuesday.

Alira is betting big on biometrics services by picking up Italy-based CROS NT, which has offices in Italy, London and North Carolina. The deal, for undisclosed terms, gives a boost to Alira’s direct clinical operations in Europe and access to biometrics services from the 29-year-old contract research organization.

“The synergies among our Regulatory, Clinical and Real-World Evidence (RWE) practices and CROS NT’s global biometrics capabilities will enhance Alira Health’s unique ability to serve clients across their solutions lifecycle,” said CEO Gabriele Brambilla in a statement.

As part of the deal, CROS NT CEO Paolo Morelli becomes Alira’s executive vice president of biometrics.

CROS NT built up its own biometric services portfolio: clinical data management, biostatistics, statistical programming and medical writing, through a series of acquisitions in the early 2010s. In 2013, CROS NT established a foothold in the U.S. with its purchase of Stat-Tech Services, which had a presence in the medical devices sector. CROS NT followed up the next year with its buy of biometrics services provider MDSL International to broaden its U.K. branch.

Alira’s work spans the gamut from transaction advisory to regulatory services to advanced analytics, management consulting, product development and clinical investigator training, to name a few. With the CROS NT deal, Alira secures not only a biometrics presence but also a portfolio of electronic data capture systems.

Like CROS NT, Alira is no stranger to M&A.

The firm announced its own acquisition of California-based chemical, manufacturing and control (CMC) advisor Chamow & Associates back in January to bolster Alira’s biologics manufacturing, quality assurance and regulatory compliance business. Further yet, 12 months ago, Alira picked up French consulting firm Care Factory for its data science experts and electronic health record database knowledge.

RELATED: Novo Holdings’ CRO Altasciences continues deal spree, snapping up Calvert Labs for its preclinical focus

Alira is one of many in the CRO space to ink deals in recent months. Altasciences acquired preclinical CRO Calvert Laboratories in May, weeks after itself being bought out by Novo Holdings, and a few months after buying early-stage CRO WCCT Global.

Like Altasciences, Alira has also placed an emphasis on the preclinical setting in recent months with its March hire of Nikole Siegmund as vice president of preclinical development.