Led by partner Bruce Morrison, HMT advised CRC Development Limited (“CRC”) on its acquisition of Premier Research, a contract Clinical Research Organisation (“CRO”) based in Philadelphia, USA.

Originally founded in 2002 by Dr Guy Patrick, Dr Simon Yaxley and Mr Tim Carden, all of whom have extensive experience of the pharmaceutical industry, CRC’s objective is to build a CRO with a global footprint in the medical clinical research market through a buy and build strategy.

CRO’s organise and monitor clinical trials for pharmaceutical companies, which increasingly outsource this part of their drug development cycle. By better use of the current technologies, CRC aims to reduce this cycle significantly with huge cost savings to the pharmaceutical companies.

Premier Research, a well established CRO in the US, is the third acquisition made by CRC within two years. Premier Research was part of a publishing group, with the main part of the group having been the subject of multi-million dollar sale recently, and it was sold as part of the divestment plan. It is a successful CRO, and has recently enjoyed considerable success in being awarded a major US Government contract.

HMT have acted as lead advisors to CRC’s management in all its three acquisitions, including sourcing funds, financial due diligence of the target businesses and negotiation of terms with the vendors. The funding for the acquisitions of CRC GMBH and Premier Research was provided by a private individual interested in supporting businesses in early stage development, but demonstrating high growth potential.

Bruce Morrison commented: “We were delighted to act for CRC in this third acquisition, which provides great potential for the further explosive growth of the group, with major operations in the UK and US, as well as a pan European presence. Premier Research is a natural fit with complementary customer base and geographical presence, enabling them to compete efficiently for larger contracts, which would not be possible for the businesses on a standalone basis.”

<< back to recent corporate transactions