Crown Bioscience and JSR Life Sciences teamed up to acquire IndivuServe, a unit of Germany’s Indivumed, in a share purchase agreement.
Under terms of the deal, which is expected to close in April, IndivuServe will become a wholly owned subsidiary of preclinical services provider Crown Bioscience, and it includes all associated laboratory operations and staff located in Hamburg, Germany, and Frederick, Maryland.
IndivuServ combines high-quality biospecimens and clinical information to help partners in biomarker discovery and drug development in personalized oncology, the company said in a Jan. 25 press release.
Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Crown Bioscience continues its expansion with the deal that gives the San Diego-based CRO IndivuServe’s curated and characterized biobank of nearly 1 million samples with associated clinical data. Additionally, the company picks up a network of more than 60 clinical divisions in the U.S., Europe and Asia that provide access to surgical biospecimens and blood samples annotated with comprehensive clinical data.
“The acquisition of Indivumed Services reflects Crown Bioscience’s commitment to expanding our translational research platforms to provide our customers with superior options for bridging the gap between preclinical and clinical research,” Armin Spura, Crown Bioscience’s chief executive, said in the release.
In December, the company expanded its gene editing capabilities by inking a licensing deal with ERS Genomics to use its CRISPR/Cas9 patent portfolio for the development of new treatments in the fields of oncology, immuno-oncology and immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.
Crown Bioscience hinted in August that it was looking at acquisitions in Europe and the U.S. after rejiggering its leadership team. That moved followed the May announcement of a joint partnership with the JSR Life Sciences unit Medical and Biological Laboratories to further expand its preclinical services in Japan.