Greenwich, CT’s Aptuit has purchased early stage drug discovery outfit Exquiron for an undisclosed sum in a move that the company predicts will bolster its offerings in areas including assay development and candidate nomination.
Through the deal, Aptuit gets a Basel, Switzerland-based CRO “dedicated to state-of-the-art hit identification and validation services,” according to Exquiron. Founded 2013, the pharma services company will add to Aptuit’s capabilities following its previous deals for Almedica, InfoPro and units of Quintiles ($Q) and Evotec.
Aptuit CEO Jonathan Goldman said his company: “Can now offer uninterrupted and very high quality delivery of a research program from target to high quality candidate nomination. We expect our customers to benefit from improved probability of candidate nomination, with reductions in time and cost.”
For Aptuit, the deal comes a few months after it decided in December to inject $16 million into facilities in the U.K. and Italy--adding 90 scientists--to meet customer demand. Before that, the company sold off two facilities in Scotland and Indiana for $60 million to AMRI.
Though not as big in size, the deal signifies some of the ongoing consolidation in the CRO space, with LabCorp reportedly eyeing INC Research after finishing its Covance deal last year. China's WuXi AppTec also this month purchased Germany’s Crelux to continue its push into Europe.
Aptuit’s small molecule discovery capabilities are in the therapeutic areas including neuroscience, oncology, infectious disease, inflammation and respiratory.
- here's the release