The new company is made up of Prague-based contract research organisation Neox Czech, a provider of Phase II to IV services, joins sister organisation Neox Poland, Hungary’s BiTrial, Croatia-headquartered Sermon and Austrian firm MM Consulting.
Neox Europe said that the decision to merge the five companies is a ‘logical result’ of the close working relationship they developed following collaboration on a number of contract clinical trial projects.
The firm also has close ties with other European research organisations, namely Finland’s Secret Files Oy, Axonal in Belgium and France and Italian observational study specialist MediData srl. This gives the organisation a 350-strong team with operations in 18 countries.
In a press statement Pavel Marek, CEO of the Neox Czech explained that the decision to go beyond the partnership model and carry out a formal merger reflects the evolving needs of the pharmaceutical sector.
“Global projects are more and more challenging, requiring well educated and trained staff. This approach is vital in order to meet the increasing requests and needs of pharmaceutical companies. That is why we created united company to become one team."
Company Martin Mayrleitnera greed and added that the firm plans to try and leverage its presence across Europe. “CEE countries recruit in clinical trials more patients than the rest of Europe, but it does not mean, that Western Europe is to be avoided.”
But while Neox’ base of operations is undeniably European, its client based need not be according to medical director Petr Potuznik.
"We don´t want to run studies in USA, it is not where our expertise is. Our intention is to show US- based clients, that we are experts in Europe, and that it is possible to perform clinical trials in Europe very cost-effectively while still maintaining high quality standards."
Consolidation
The launch of Neox Europe follows just weeks after Aptiv Solutions, a CRO combining Averion International, Trio Clinical Research, ClinResearch, Niphix, Addplan and Fulcrum Pharma, officially joined the US trial sector.
Both deals are further evidence that the wave of consolidation sweeping the research services sector is not restricted to larger players like inVentiv, INC and Clinpace.
The formation of Neox and Aptiv is also unlikely to have escaped the attention of private equity firms interested in keeping up with peers like Nautic Partners and CCMP Capital, which have both acquired CROs in recent years.