Oncodesign Services buys Dutch CRO ZoBio
French trial contractor Oncodesign Services (ODS) has acquired Netherlands-based CRO ZoBio to expand its reach in the EU.
The deal – financial terms of which were not disclosed – will add ZoBio’s biophysics-based small molecule drug discovery services to Oncodesign’s offering.
Combined ODS and ZoBio have a team of 280 employees spread across Dijon and Les Ulis in France, Leiden in Netherlands and with subsidiaries in Canada and the US.
Oncodesign CEO Fabrice Viviani, said “We are all very excited to welcome ZoBio to the Group, and thus strengthen our offering in small molecule drug discovery preclinical services from Gene-to-IND with leading-edge skills and technologies.
“ODS and ZoBio are highly complementary, and we are extremely pleased that Gregg Siegal [ZoBio CEO], Rob Heetebrij [chief operating officer] and Jan Schultz [managing director of business development] have decided to continue the adventure and commitment with us to identify novel preclinical candidates for our customers in major disease areas, and to benefit also from the many commercial and operational synergies to come.”
He added “I am also pleased to welcome Nov Santé as an investor whose financial support and life sciences expertise further strengthen ODS to execute on its ambitious build up strategy.”
The deal was also backed by Elyan Partners, a private equity firm and member of the Edmond de Rothschild private equity partnership, which invests in medium-sized companies in Europe and North America.
Gregg Siegal, was similarly upbeat about the deal, commenting: "We are truly excited about the opportunity to combine our best-in-class Fragment Based Drug Discovery platform with the expertise of ODS.
“We have looked at many ways to strategically expand our capabilities to cover a greater portion of the drug discovery pipeline and ODS was by far the best fit. Now we are looking forward to integrating with Fabrice's team and bringing the best of both companies to our clients."
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