A group of private equity firms are pouring funding into PCI Pharma Services, betting the contract drug development and manufacturing organization’s business is poised to grow in the years ahead.
PCI said Monday that Bain Capital and existing lead private equity backer Kolberg have made an unspecified investment in the company. That funding was supported by a “significant reinvestment” from current backer Mubadala Investment Co. and reportedly values PCI at $10 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. Partners Group, another existing equity holder, is making a minority investment, the company said.
PCI helps biopharmaceutical companies manufacture and package drug products used in clinical trials as well as commercially. The company has been in business for more than five decades and says it’s been involved in more than 450 product launches over the last five years alone — Novo Nordisk’s popular weight loss drug Wegovy reportedly among them.
The company has changed hands among private equity investors multiple times over the last decade or so. Frazier Healthcare Partners acquired it from Catalent Pharma in 2012 and sold a majority stake to Partners Group four years later. In 2020, Partners Group flipped its ownership stake to Mubadala. According to the Journal, PCI has more than doubled in size since the last transaction, with its employee count now nearing 8,000.
With the new funds, PCI intends to expand its geographic reach as well as its capacity to manufacture specialized medicines and “fill-finish” facilities for injectable therapies. It’ll also boost investments in U.S. drug production.
The company has 30 sites across Australia, Canada, North America, the U.K. and Europe, and, earlier this year, acquired a facility in San Diego. Additionally, PCI is repurposing an existing campus in Bedford, N.H., into a “center of excellence” that will produce a wide range of small molecules and biologic drugs, including protein-degrading “PROTACs” and antibody-drug conjugates.
PCI has "embarked on a purposeful journey to transform itself into a global CDMO," said CEO Salim Haffar, in a statement.
For Bain, the investment adds to a considerable presence supporting biopharma companies. The firm’s life sciences arm has raised more than $6 billion since its inception in 2016, most recently via a $3 billion fund it announced last September. It’s used that cash to back more than 70 companies, from investments in new startups to growth funding for more advanced developers and financial lifelines for “fallen angels” at a crossroads.
