The agreement - financial terms of which were not disclosed – will see San Diego, US-based Advantar’s GLP and cGMP laboratory become part of Eurofins' network. The 50 staff employed at the facility will also join Eurofins.
Advantar provides analytical services to the pharmaceutical industry, but its capabilities in biopharmaceutical analysis is where it stands out according to Neal McCarthy from Fairmount Partners, the Philadelphia-based bank which represented Advantar shareholders.
“Advantar is strong at both analytical testing and formulation and also has a small manufacturing operation that could be used to make clinical trial supplies or small scale commercial products” he said, adding the firm also has “expertise is in large molecule projects, which is less common.”
McCarthy – who brokered the sale of US environmental testing firm Air Toxics to Eurofins in 2012 - said Advantar’s proximity to West Coast industry customers was a big selling point. He also predicted Eurofins would hire additional staff and expand the lab.
The acquisition is the latest in series of laboratory takeovers made by Eurofins, many of which have been pharmaceutical services firms.
For example, last month Eurofins bought Australian QC company ams Laboratories – which provides analytical and cGMP Quality Control (QC) services provider for biopharmaceuticals - just two months after buying another QC testing firm – Sinensis Life Science BV;
In June last year Eurofins announced it would pay $40m (€35m) for a 75% stake in Emory Genetics Laboratory (EGL) – a specialist provider of genetic testing service – in a deal with current owner Emory University's School of Medicine.
A week before that the firm bought French testing services firm Biomnis from Bio Alfras SAS for €220m ($249m) and two weeks after it announced a €150m investment in lab group BioAccess.
And a month before that Eurofins acquired US-based testing services specialist Diatherix Laboratories.