The North Carolina-based clinical research arm of SRA International has been acquired by CRO Aptiv Solutions in a deal between two Northern Virginia companies.
Fairfax, Virginia-based SRA provides technology and consulting services. But the company said its Durham, North Carolina-based CRO unit, SRA Global Clinical Development, would be a better fit with the pharmaceutical services of Reston, Virginia-based Aptiv.
The Power Behind Enterprise EHR Software for Large Healthcare Systems
Enterprise EHR boosts scalability, interoperability, and governance for large healthcare systems.
“We believe the GCD business, as a part of Aptiv Solutions, has greater opportunity to pursue a wider range of initiatives that align with its mission,” SRA President and CEO Bill Ballhaus said in a prepared statement.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. But the sale appears to be an SRA effort to refocus its operations; the company makes most of its money by providing technology and consulting services to government agencies. SRA generated $1.6 billion in 2010 sales. Healthcare and public health (including the CRO business) generated $275.1 million of that revenue. In its 2010 annual report, SRA said its CRO unit has been adversely affected by the global recession, which has decreased the availability of funding for small and mid-sized pharmaceutical companies. That reduction in turn reduces the number of drug candidates being taken through clinical trials.
While the SRA deal does not match the scale of scale of the $3.9 billion PPD sale to private equity, it’s a private equity-tinged deal nonetheless. SRA was taken private earlier this year in a $1.88 billion acquisition by Providence Equity Partners. Aptiv’s financial backers include private equity firm The Halifax Group.
Aptiv is led by Chairman and CEO Patrick Donnelly, the former CEO of PRA International. With backing from Halifax and venture capital firm SV Life Science, the company has been involved in several CRO M&A deals in the last year, acquisitions that formed the company. Acquisitions of ClinResearch and ADDPLAN brought the company adaptive trial services and software. United Kingdom-based Fulcrum Pharma, brought drug development, regulatory and safety services to the mix.
The Hidden Administrative Tasks Draining Small Practices
Small practices play a critical role in healthcare delivery, but they cannot continue to absorb ever-increasing administrative demands without consequences.
In February, Raleigh, North Carolina-based CRO Trio Clinical Research was merged with the three recently acquired companies and two others: Niphix and Averion International. All of the companies together formed Aptiv Solutions.
SRA GCD will help Aptiv with its global ambitions. The unit’s roughly 100 workers now join Aptiv, including a regulatory consulting team based just outside of London.
“Assimilation of staff into Aptiv Solutions is already under way, and our primary focus will be to continue to provide best-in-class service to the current SRA GCD clients,” Donnelly said in a prepared statement. “With this acquisition we continue to broaden our client base and add significant expertise and scale to Aptiv Solutions.”