Novotech CRO Attracts Investment for Asia Clinical Trial Expansion

Novotech

, Australia’s largest independent CRO today announced a funding injection from private equity firm

Mercury Capital

.

Novotech CEO Alek Safarian said, “Novotech is focused on the fast-growing Asia region. We are already active in 10 countries in the region on behalf of our biotechnology and pharmaceutical clients. This investment will further accelerate our expansion plans.”
“Novotech works predominantly with U.S. and EU pharmaceutical and biotech companies and is currently managing around 70 trials across a wide range of therapeutic areas including oncology and cardiovascular disease.”

Mercury Capital acquired a 30% stake in Novotech and has the option to increase this to 50% at a later date. Mercury Capital was founded by former Goldman Sachs managing director Clark Perkins, and typically invests in firms with an enterprise value between $30-120M.

“We’re excited by the organic growth opportunities in Australia and Asia, and acquisition opportunities in the latter,” Mr. Perkins told The Wall Street Journal MoneyBeat in a recent interview.

“There’s a strong trend of major pharmaceutical companies outsourcing, which has led to underlying annual compound growth in the market of between 5% and 10%,” Mr. Perkins said. “Novotech is growing much faster than this,” he added.

Novotech, a leading regional full service CRO headquartered in Australia with offices in New Zealand, Singapore, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and South Korea, has been instrumental in the success of hundreds of phase I-IV clinical trials.