American CRO QPS has bought a controlling stake in Austria's JSW, a provider of drug development services focusing on central nervous system diseases.
QPS isn't disclosing any financial terms, but the company said all of JSW's business will be conducted under the QPS JSW moniker from here on out. QPS says the acquisition will beef up its capabilities in Phase II-IV drug development and expand its market share in Central and Eastern Europe.
JSW is the largest CRO in Austria, QPS says. The company is the leading provider of genetically modified organisms for research in CNS diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's and schizophrenia.
QPS has been on an acquisition spree around the world over the past few years, and the JSW deal comes on the heels of QPS' buyouts of India's Bioserve, the Netherlands' Xendo and Taiwan's Center of Toxicology and Preclinical Sciences.
CEO Ben Chien said the diverse purchases are pushing his firm up the ranks of global CROs. "Clients all over the world will now have access to an even wider range of the exceptional services they have come to expect from QPS, along with an expanding global footprint," Chien said in a statement.
- read QPS' release
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated JSW's home country. The company is based in Austria.