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Premier Research plc acquired Scirex Corporation Group for up to £20 million

HMT Corporate Finance advised Premier Research Group plc (“PRG”), an international pharmaceutical services group, on the acquisition of the Scirex Corporation Group (“Scirex”) for up to £20 million.

Scirex, a subsidiary of Omnicom Inc, the global leader in marketing communications, is a full service contract research organisation (“CRO”) specialising in providing outsourced clinical services to a number of pharmaceutical areas. It specialises in trials from Phase I through to Phase IV, specialising in analgesia (CNS), general medicine (e.g. cardiovascular) and neurology. The business is long established and mainly operates from 9 offices in the US, one in Poland and one in the UK. It is headquartered near Philadelphia.

Scirex complements PRG’s existing business and provides a much enhanced scale in the US, particularly through its size and access to both patients and doctors in the important US market. There is virtually no customer overlap, and the acquisition brings a significant order book, which provides high visibility of future earnings.

Bruce Morrison of HMT commented:

“We were delighted to act for PRG on this, its seventh acquisition in its buy and build strategy, and the fourth since flotation. We believe that the acquisition of Scirex, which has a strong reputation, adds significant scale to the business in the all important US market, and provides PRG with an exciting opportunity to continue its success.”

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