CRO Veristat buys TCTC Group to expand in Europe
The acquisition gives Veristat control of The Clinical Trial Company, a UK-based contract research organization (CRO) known by the abbreviation TCTC Group.
TCTC Group works out of two sites in the UK, a headquarters near Manchester, in northern England, and a specialist central nervous system (CNS) site in Scotland. Following the takeover, the two UK sites have become Veristat’s sole presence in Europe.
In North America, Veristat has positioned itself as a CRO focused on the needs of emerging, small and mid-sized biopharma companies. That positioning has led Veristat to have a role in a significant minority of drug development projects.
Across 2018, more than 10% of the drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had benefited from the support of Veristat. The FDA approvals brought the number of regulatory submissions supported globally by Veristat up above 75.
Having bought TCTC Group, Veristat is now positioned to spread the approach that brought it these successes to a new continent.
Explaining the motivation for the takeover, Veristat CEO Patrick Flanagan said, “With the addition of TCTC Group, Veristat has gained a highly skilled team of experts to support our clients worldwide. Providing superior clinical services with our expanded team will enable us to better manage, recruit and run our clients’ trials on a global scale.”
TCTC Group’s CNS expertise also factored into Flanagan’s thinking. The Veristat CEO pointed to the industry’s “increased funding in CNS and gene therapy research” to explain why he sees the field as a “critical therapeutic category.”
CNS is part of Veristat’s traditional breadth of focus. Most of the US CRO’s clinical trial work covers cancers, rare diseases, neurological disorders, cardiovascular disease and infectious diseases.
TCTC Group built up its expertise in the CNS field over the course of its 17-year history as an independent company, going as far as to create a dedicated division called The CNS Company.
More broadly, TCTC Group focused on “products without a classical road map to approval.” That focus led TCTC Group to work on advanced therapy medicinal products, such as cell and gene therapies, as well as orphan medicines and drug-device combinations.
