- Aptuit to acquire Preclinical, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Clinical
Supplies units
- Companies to enter commercial agreement
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., July 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Quintiles
Transnational Corp., the world's leading pharmaceutical services organization,
announced today that it has signed an agreement with Aptuit Inc., an emerging
company focused on streamlining and supporting the early drug development
process, to enter a strategic partnership. Aptuit will acquire three
Quintiles business units -- Preclinical Services, Pharmaceutical Sciences and
Clinical Trial Supplies -- for approximately $125 million, and the two
companies will sign a two-year commercial agreement.
"This is a winning, strategic move for Quintiles that we believe will
benefit our customers," said Dennis Gillings, CBE, Chairman and CEO of
Quintiles. "The commercial agreement will enable Quintiles to continue to
make early development services available through the alliance while we grow
internally to meet the increasing demand for our services in clinical trials
and commercial partnerships.
"With this agreement, we enhance our already strong cash position, which
is important for many of our partnering solutions. We can also bring greater
focus to our clinical services and clinical support services, such as our
global laboratory network."
The Quintiles units provide services to 19 of the top 20 drug companies
worldwide, as well as many of the emerging biotechnology and small to mid-
sized pharmaceutical companies worldwide. The transaction also marks a
significant step forward in Aptuit's strategy to build a world-class drug
development services company, focused on early stage development, through
acquisition and investments in talent, technologies and infrastructure.
Aptuit plans to provide customers in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical
sectors with a suite of early development services and competencies designed
to accelerate and enhance the probability of success for new drugs in
development.
"As an integrated organization, these three business units constitute a
premier business that will form the foundation for our drug development
services offerings," said Michael Griffith, CEO of Aptuit. "We gain an
industry-leading team with the right expertise for our business model, a
world-class customer base, GMP/GLP facilities, and a range of technologies to
support and help drive drug development. From a technical and operational
standpoint, we aim to make the transition to Aptuit virtually seamless to
employees and customers."
The three Quintiles business units employ about 1,400 people, primarily in
Kansas City, Mo.; Mt. Laurel, N.J.; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Singapore.
Aptuit plans to reorganize the units into three global business lines:
Preclinical Technologies, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Packaging & Logistics.
Aptuit, which is backed by the private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson
& Stowe, intends to invest up to $50 million in the business units over the
next three years to enhance operations and expand its service portfolio. Once
the acquisition is completed, a management team will be named. The agreement
relating to the purchase of Quintiles' business units is subject to
satisfaction of customary contractual conditions and regulatory requirements.
Closing is anticipated to occur during the third quarter of 2005.
About Quintiles
Quintiles' Product Development, Commercialization and PharmaBio
Development divisions help improve healthcare worldwide by providing a broad
range of professional services, information and partnering solutions to the
pharmaceutical, biotechnology and healthcare industries. Headquartered near
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, Quintiles has about 17,000 employees
in offices in 50 countries and is the world's leading pharmaceutical services
organization. For more information visit the company's Web site at
http://www.quintiles.com.
Information in this press release contains "forward-looking statements."
These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially, including, without limitation, the inability of
the parties to satisfy all of the conditions to closing, the possibility of
delays in obtaining or the failure to receive required regulatory approvals,
the possibility that the transaction might otherwise be delayed or fail to
close, and the ability to operate successfully in the alliance. Additional
factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are discussed in
Quintiles' recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
including but not limited to its annual report on Form 10-K, its quarterly
report on Form 10-Q and its current reports on Form 8-K.
SOURCE Quintiles Transnational Corp.
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Related links:
http://www.quintiles.com
CONTACT:
Dick Jones, Media Relations, +1-919-998-2091,
or media.info@quintiles.com , or Greg Connors, Investor
Relations, +1-919-998-2000, or invest@quintiles.com , both of
Quintiles Transnational Corp.
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