Odyssey Investment Partners ("Odyssey") announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire ProPharma Group (or the "Company") from Linden Capital Partners. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in 2001, ProPharma Group is a leading provider of regulatory and compliance services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device customers. The Company's primary service offerings include regulatory affairs, life science consulting, pharmacovigilance and medical information services. ProPharma Group partners with its clients from early concept development through each clinical phase, product launch, and commercialization to help ensure regulatory expectations are met, business goals are achieved, and patient health and safety is improved. ProPharma Group is headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas, with 5 US-based offices and 10 additional offices across Canada, UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Japan and Australia.
Dawn Sherman, CEO, as well as the ProPharma Group management team are investing in ProPharma Group alongside Odyssey and will continue to lead the Company.
Jeffrey McKibben, a Senior Managing Principal of Odyssey, said: "ProPharma Group represents a compelling opportunity to invest in a growing business with attractive demand characteristics given its critical role in helping customers comply with regulatory and safety requirements. Dawn and the management team have done an outstanding job of establishing a comprehensive offering of services in a large, growing and fragmented industry. We have identified numerous organic and inorganic opportunities to build on ProPharma Group's leadership position by expanding its four business verticals and expect to capitalize on these in the coming years."
Ms. Sherman said: "We are enthusiastic about our new partnership with Odyssey, given their long track record of supporting management teams looking to further drive and expand their businesses. Our team has a lot of runway in front of us, including continuing to expand our operations and customer base both domestically and internationally, and identifying new ways to assist pharma along the lifecycle of a drug. Odyssey understands our business and the opportunities that lie ahead and is well-positioned to help us build on our accomplishments to date and reach our full potential."
Tug Fisher, a Principal of Odyssey, added: "Our investment is a continuation of Odyssey's macro thematic work in the pharma services industry, and ProPharma Group represents our second investment in the sector. We believe the business is uniquely positioned as a leading specialty player to execute on the underlying market opportunity and we are excited to support the team in achieving their growth objectives."
Closing of the transaction is expected to occur in October.
Latham & Watkins and Smith Anderson served as legal advisors and Jefferies LLC served as financial advisor to Odyssey.
About ProPharma Group
ProPharma Group is a global, independent, single-source provider of outsourced regulatory, compliance, pharmacovigilance, and medical information services serving pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies. Founded in 2001, ProPharma Group has more than 1,200 colleagues worldwide providing a comprehensive portfolio of regulatory and compliance solutions to help solve complex challenges in a dynamic regulatory environment. With the mission to improve the health and safety of patients, ProPharma Group is focused on delivering the highest quality of services throughout the full product lifecycle. For more information, please visit www.propharmagroup.com.
About Odyssey Investment Partners
Odyssey Investment Partners is a leading private equity investment firm with more than a 25-year history of partnering with skilled managers and using its buy, build and integrate approach to transform middle-market companies into more efficient and diversified businesses with strong growth profiles. Odyssey makes majority-controlled investments in industrial and business services sectors with a long-term positive outlook and favorable secular trends. For further information about Odyssey, please visit www.odysseyinvestment.com.