Dive Brief:
- Contract research organization BioClinica is reportedly considering a sale which could possibly value it as high as $1.3 billion, reports Reuters citing people familiar with the matter.
- JLL Partners acquired BioClinica in 2012 for $123 million and has expanded the company through a series of mergers and other deals over the past several years.
- The CRO sector has seen its fair share of M&A recently, notably evidenced by the $9 billion tie-up between IMS and Quintiles earlier this month.
Dive Insight:
BioClinica provides clinical trial support in over 90 countries and claims to support more than 17,000 trial sites. The company also provides clinical research data and analytics support.
JLL Partners merged BioClinica with CoreLab Partners immediately after its cash deal for BioClinica finalized. The buyout firm then completed a string of mergers and acquisitions to bulk up the CRO, signing deals with Blueprint Clinical, Medici Group, Synowledge, and most recently Clinverse.
The M&A trend seen in the pharmaceutical industry has been mirrored by the CRO market as well. Recent reports indicated the Swiss company Lonza Group was interested in acquiring major CRO Catalent. Others, like Patheon, have gone the IPO route.