USA – Novotech, a Singapore-based contract research organization (CRO), has acquired NCGS in order to broaden its global client offerings and finally offer full-service, high-quality clinical services to customers in the United States.
As a result, Novotech can now provide services in the United States, particularly for later-stage global studies, the company has announced. The transaction’s financial details were not disclosed.
NCGS is a privately held CRO with approximately 300 employees across the United States. The company specializes in oncology, hematology, infectious disease, and central nervous system disorders in adults and children.
Novotech has hundreds of sites in the Asia-Pacific, which will be complemented by the addition of NCGS’ broad US site base.
“This is a strategic move to provide U.S.-based expertise and infrastructure for our U.S. clients wanting trials in APAC and the US, and for our APAC clients wanting U.S. clinical programs,” said Novotech CEO John Moller.
According to NGCS founder and CEO Nancy Snowden, Novotech and NCGS have been working together for over a decade.
In 2020, Novotech transformed a collaboration with Shanghai-based PPC Group into a full merger, bringing together 1,550 biotech employees in Asia.
Novotech will take over NCGS’ corporate headquarters, which was updated in 2017. The Charleston, South Carolina campus was built a mile away from its previous location. The project cost US$10 million and created 80 new jobs.
Novotech acquired CRO Clinical Network Services in 2018, which aided in the expansion of its early- to late-stage trial network in the region.
The company hired 140 people in the United States, New Zealand, and Australia and continues to work in the non-oncology space.
Alek Safarian, the founder of Novotech, transitioned to the world of venture capital in September 2020, beginning with a US$59 million raise for the close of a US$150 million Europe-focused fund.
ASLA Ventures has previously invested in oncology companies Epsilogen and Oxford Biotherapeutics, as well as the Belgian startup Montis Biosciences.
The transaction comes just a few months after Novotech raised US$255 million from a small group of equity investors and US$505 million through debt refinancing, Financial Review reports.
Moller stated at the time that the capital injection would allow the company to pursue “various strategic M&A and tech enablement initiatives.”
TPG retains a majority stake in Novotech. It was planning a Hong Kong IPO last year before switching to a private markets transaction.
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