French private equity firm Apax Partners SAS has taken a majority stake in Porsolt and expects to grow the CRO by increasing staff as much as 40% in the next four years.
Currently, Porsolt has about 100 employees and has been providing preclinical services for almost 40 years. The financial weight of Apax will also be used to propel Porsolt’s global footprint and address various therapeutic areas in pharma, biotech and research, the company said in a Feb. 21 press release.
Financial details of the deal weren’t disclosed.
“We see Porsolt as a significant player in the preclinical service space,” Stanislas Panhard, a partner at Apax, said in the release. “We look forward to supporting the team and contributing our expertise where needed, in order to help Porsolt move to the next level in particular through bolt-on acquisitions in Europe and in the U.S., and become a key industry leader.”
Porsolt’s chief executive, Guillaume Froget, said the investment will allow the company to “provide outstanding services and quality science to our customers, while growing to meet the increased global demand for preclinical research services.”
Porsolt offers specialized preclinical testing services across a range of disease areas, physiological systems and processes as well as providing services like drug discovery, screening, efficacy and pharmacological safety testing.