Investor in healthcare technology and services companies — Genstar Capital — has acquired global provider of eCOA and eConsent solutions for the life sciences industry — CRF Health.
Acquisition puzzle
As part of the transaction, CRF will be combined with Bracket, a provider of software and technology-enabled solutions used in clinical trials. Bracket is a portfolio company of Genstar.
“CRF Health earned an outstanding reputation with 20 years of experience providing eCOA and now eConsent solutions to the biopharma industry around the world,” said Mike Nolte, who will lead the combined organisation as CEO. “CRF’s technology and therapeutic experience dovetail well with our solutions, and they expand our ability to support increasingly complex clinical research. I am excited to bring two outstanding teams together to provide a reliable and scalable platform that accelerates the development of life changing medicines for our families and communities across the globe.”
“This is an exciting step forward for patients, clients, and our new combined team,” added Rachel Wyllie, CEO of CRF Health, who will become the executive chairman of the combined company. “The complementary nature of the two businesses provides us with the platform and scale for future growth in our dynamic markets, while ensuring our customers have more access to the latest patient-centric innovations in clinical research.”
Jean-Pierre Conte, chairman and managing director at Genstar Capital, commented: “Bringing CRF and Bracket together will create a world-class healthcare technology company supporting clinical trials and will accelerate adoption and growth in eCOA, eConsent, patient engagement, rater training and trial supply management solutions. We look forward to working with the outstanding leaders at both organisations. This notable event in pharmaceutical services is another example of Genstar’s private equity strategy of driving change at our portfolio companies to create high-growth and extremely valuable companies. Healthcare is an important sector for Genstar and we continue to identify great opportunities to apply our growth model to build great companies.”
Philip Russmeyer, partner at Vitruvian Partners, stated: “We are delighted to support the combination of Bracket and CRF to further accelerate, and build upon, the excellent advances that our partnership with the strong management team at CRF has produced over the past years.”