Venn Life Sciences is expanding its reach across Europe, buying a small Dutch contractor to bolster its offerings in regulatory affairs.
The U.K. CRO is paying €3.6 million ($4 million) up front for Kinesis Pharma BV, promising up to €2.9 million ($3.3 million) more over four years if the company meets certain performance goals.
In exchange, Venn gets a 60-employee consultancy that focuses on providing regulatory advice to drugmakers as they work through preclinical and early-stage development.
"The drug development industry is now addressing potential efficacy and safety issues much earlier in the development cycle as a means to save cost and time," Venn CEO Tony Richardson said in a statement. "The acquisition of Kinesis Pharma enhances our offering in this early stage development arena, allowing us to establish relationships earlier and enabling enhanced cross selling of downstream services."
The acquisitive Venn has been picking up small competitors for years, a process that has expanded its revenue base. In the first half of 2015, the CRO booked revenue of €4.3 million ($4.8 million), nearly tripling its haul from the same period last year.
- read the statement