Aberdeen Murray Johnstone backs Synexus MBO

Synexus, an organisation which recruits patients for clinical trials, has been bought out by its management, with the help of a £4m investment from Aberdeen Murray Johnstone Private Equity.

The investment was made up from Murray VCT, <Murray VCT 2, Murray VCT 3, Murray VCT 4 and Ventures North West.

Ed Fazakerley, an associate director at Aberdeen Murray Johnstone Private Equity who handled the deal alongside Gary Tipper, said: “Synexus is operating in what remains a relatively embryonic market. However, the management team’s plans for expansion to provide a wider network of clinical trials centres including European expansion and also to widen the disease areas in which they specialise meets the needs of the pharmaceutical sector in a time when the levels of clinical trials activity continues to increase.”

Synexus is Europe’s largest Site Management Organisation (SMO), which recruits patients for large scale clinical trials. Dr Ian Smith, medical director of Synexus, said: “We now consider ourselves to be genuinely multi-speciality and we are seeking to add to our capability through collaboration with specialists in areas such as rheumatology and psychiatry.”

The company has undertaken clinical trials for 19 of the world’s largest 20 pharmaceutical companies. The SMO concept operated by Synexus helps pharmaceutical companies speed up the time it takes to get new drugs to market.

Synexus employs over 100 staff and has its headquarters and ten clinical research centres in the UK. It was formed in April 1998 following the merger of the northern-based Edgebright Partnership and the southern based clinical trials division of AEA Technology plc.