Blackstone buys CMIC, underlining interest in Japan’s trial sector

Private equity firm Blackstone has made a second investment in Japan’s CRO space, buying a majority stake in Japanese research contractor CMIC.

New York, US-based Blackstone acquired a 60% holding in Tokyo-headquartered CMIC for an undisclosed sum. CMIC Holdings, an organization run by the CRO’s founders, will retain the remaining 40% stake.

Atsuhiko Sakamoto, head of private equity, Blackstone Japan, said: “This is a continuation of our strong commitment to Japan — one of our fastest-growing markets globally — and investing in our high conviction theme, life-sciences-related services, where we’ve built a meaningful portfolio in Japan and around the world.

“We’re proud to showcase a hallmark Blackstone deal: partnering with a visionary founder and the management team to help build the business for lasting value, benefitting from our scale, operational expertise, and synergy across our portfolio,” he said.

The CMIC deal comes almost a year after Blackstone bought a majority holding in Japanese clinical trial site management organization I’rom.

Trials in Japan

The investment also follows changes designed to address the regulatory “drug lag” that has seen products approved in Europe and the US take longer to reach pharmacy shelves in Japan.

In December 2023, for example, the Japanese government ruled that research sites in the country could be added to late-stage, multi-centric trials without the obligation to provide Phase I data in Japanese subjects.

Sakamoto cited these changes in reference to the CMIC deal, telling Reuters, “The Japanese clinical trial process is pretty inefficient, and it takes a very long time compared to other markets.

“They are now streamlining the process to make it faster to bring new drugs to Japan, so that’s something we can contribute to,” he said.

According to the newswire Blackstone also plans to make other pharmaceutical services sector acquisitions in Japan to expand CMIC.

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