BioDuro partners with Advent International

BioDuro and Advent International announced a partnership to support BioDuro’s growth as a premier provider of integrated drug discovery, development and manufacturing services. Under the terms of the partnership, Advent has made a majority investment in BioDuro. Financial terms were not disclosed.

BioDuro has operations in San Diego, California as well as Beijing and Shanghai, China, and is the preferred partner for some of the world’s most exciting drug discovery and development projects. With its strong market position and customer satisfaction rates, the company is well-positioned to take advantage of robust growth in the healthcare services sector, with a focus on innovation and providing high quality integrated discovery services such as synthetic and medicinal chemistry, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK), biologics and biology services, translational oncology services that include the “living tumor bank” acquired from Molecular Response and augmented by contract manufacturing to the large pharma and biotech sectors. BioDuro expects to invest in operational expansion, including a new research base in China, which will be in addition to its existing Beijing and Shanghai sites, and expansion of its current cGMP drug product and new preclinical discovery facilities in San Diego.

According to industry analysts, global pharma Rx (medical prescription) sales are expected to show robust growth and R&D spend, led by the upcoming launch of novel therapies and improved access to innovative medicines in emerging markets. Pre-clinical spending now accounts for approximately 33% of R&D spending and outsourcing is growing three times faster than in-house pre-clinical research, creating further opportunities for BioDuro.

BioDuro is uniquely positioned within China’s fast growing US$2.5 billion pre-clinical CRO (Contract Research Organization) market, which is expected to grow at a 15% CAGR by 2022. In the US, the US$1 billion CDMO (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization) market is expected to grow at a 10% CAGR by 2022.1

Advent Operating Partner David Preston will become Chairman of BioDuro’s Board of Directors and work alongside Advent Operating Partner Amit Patel who will also join the BioDuro Board of Directors. Each brings with them successful track records and deep experience in the healthcare industry in various capacities as founders, executives and advisors of global healthcare and life sciences companies.

Masood Tayebi, Ph.D., Chairman and Founder of BioDuro, said, “In Advent International, we have found a fantastic partner to help BioDuro accelerate our growth and better serve our clients. We see significant potential to leverage cross selling opportunities within our offering and ensure that we are meeting the needs of our clients across every stage of drug discovery and development.”

Cyrus K. Mirsaidi, President and CEO of BioDuro, said, “We are excited about Advent’s financial and strategic partnership which enables us to allocate new capital resources globally and garner institutional support to expand our service offering to clients. Working closely with our management team, who have all reinvested into the business, we will leverage Advent’s depth of experience in the CDMO and CRO markets complementing the quality services we offer our customers and our track record of achieving higher value outcomes for clients. We will also look for M&A opportunities to achieve these goals as well as how to attract and retain the very best talent in the market.”

Filippo de Vecchi, Managing Director and co-head of Greater China of Advent, commented, “Advent has closely followed the U.S. and Chinese healthcare sector over the past years and we view our partnership with BioDuro as an excellent opportunity to capture growth in the fast growing CRO and CDMO market worldwide. As global pharma and biotech companies increase their drug discovery efforts, BioDuro will be well positioned to increase market share by leveraging its superior quality reputation with the customers.

“With Advent’s extensive experience in the healthcare sector globally we look forward to supporting the further growth of BioDuro, working closely with Dr. Tayebi and the existing management team to expand the firm’s footprint globally.”

Advent has significant investment experience in the healthcare industry. Over the past 28 years, the firm has invested US$6.7 billion in 41 companies in the sector across 14 countries worldwide. In addition to BioDuro, recent pharmaceutical and CRO investments include Zentiva, Grupo Farmaceutico Somar and Syneos Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: SYNH), formerly INC Research Holdings.