Investment led by Advent International creates premier services company with over 2,000 employees and 10 facilities in China and US
SAN DIEGO & SHANGHAI–(BUSINESS WIRE)–BioDuro, a global life science research and development organization backed by Advent International (“Advent”), and Sundia, a leading contract research and manufacturing organization, today announced that they have partnered to create one of the largest CRDMOs (contract research, development and manufacturing organizations) with major operations in China and the US. The combined company will operate as BioDuro-Sundia, providing fully integrated drug discovery, development and manufacturing for both API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) and drug products. Advent led a majority investment in Sundia, with Bridgewest Capital as co-investors. Financial terms were not disclosed.
BioDuro-Sundia has a combined talent pool of over 2,000 employees across 10 global sites, enabling operational scale and integrated capabilities that provide its biopharma customers a single end-to-end solution from early stage drug discovery to late stage manufacturing. With strong financials and committed investment, BioDuro-Sundia is already expanding operations to bolster its strategic locations, including two new sites in China — an R&D base in Wuxi City and a manufacturing center in Bengbu – as well as capacity to add more than 1,000 employees over the next two years.
Together, the new partnership’s teams, facilities and investments are well positioned to provide continuity of services to their combined clients ensuring more success, faster timelines, and higher confidence to achieving drug discovery and development milestones.
BioDuro-Sundia’s Board of Directors includes BioDuro’s existing Board with the addition of Cathy Yen, Chairman of Sundia. Mrs. Yen is an independent director, joining hands with industry veterans such as David Preston, Kewen Jin and Masood Tayebi.
Jim Li, CEO of Sundia, joins the senior management team of BioDuro-Sundia as President of China Global CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls) Solutions, with responsibility towards critical growth in that market, including build-out of the company’s late stage GMP and non-GMP API scale-up capabilities. Mr. Li will report directly to Cyrus K. Mirsaidi, CEO of BioDuro-Sundia.
“BioDuro and Sundia share the same core values that include respect, teamwork and tenacity,” said Cyrus K. Mirsaidi, CEO of BioDuro-Sundia. “Together, we help our biopharma partners research and develop medicines that improve the lives of patients, as we keep our clients and their patients at the core of every project we undertake. This common cause makes the BioDuro-Sundia partnership a great fit — not only for our employees, who will benefit from an extended global reach and new career opportunities, but also for our partner clients whom we help every day to speed up their precious programs to the clinic and the patients in need.”
David Preston, Chairman of BioDuro-Sundia, commented, “China represents the world’s fastest growing biopharma sector. We are thrilled to be partnering with such a well-established provider in Sundia, which already has extensive discovery and CMC offerings in China. The combined company gives us the scale, leadership, capability and talent required to outpace growth in this rapidly accelerating market. It is an example of truly being stronger together.”
Cathy Yen, Director of BioDuro-Sundia, said, “We are greatly looking forward to this new venture with BioDuro combining our discovery, R&D and CMC expertise to provide customers with a highly competitive and innovative end-to-end CRDMO solution. As a service provider, this kind of productivity creates a ripple effect to the benefit of the whole biopharma sector. It enables us to accelerate timelines for hundreds of companies and to help bring medicines to patients faster for countless programs.”
Andrew Li, Managing Director and Head of Greater China of Advent, remarked, “BioDuro and Sundia both have strong track records in providing quality CRDMO services to the world’s leading pharmaceutical and biotech customers, and we believe this new partnership will achieve higher value outcomes for all stakeholders.
“This deal plays to Advent’s strong track record in the healthcare sector, our Asian regional investing and our ongoing support of Chinese pharmaceutical and healthcare businesses. We look forward to helping BioDuro-Sundia grow further and to working closely with its experienced management teams to expand the firm’s Chinese and global footprint.”
Advent has significant investment experience in the healthcare industry. Over the past 30 years, the firm has invested US$8.6 billion in 47 companies in the sector across 16 countries worldwide. In addition to BioDuro, recent pharmaceutical and CRO investments include Bharat Serums and Vaccines, ICE Group, Zentiva, Somar and Syneos Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: SYNH).
CEC Capital Group is serving as the exclusive financial advisor to Sundia.
About Sundia
Founded in 2004, Sundia is a well-established pre-clinical contract research and manufacturing organization (“CRMO”), which has built an integrated drug discovery and development platform from synthetic and medicinal chemistry, DMPK and in vitro/in vivo biology, process chemistry, formulation to analytical as well as API/starting material manufacturing of small molecules. The company has long-term collaboration with several top 10 global pharmaceutical companies and has served over 250 clients worldwide. It has a strong reputation in China for possessing an experienced technical and regulatory team who advise clients on IND submissions. Headquartered in Shanghai, Sundia currently has four R&D facilities in Shanghai, one in Shijiazhuang and one in Taiwan.
For more information, visit:
www.sundia.com
About BioDuro
BioDuro, an Advent International portfolio company, is a leading global life sciences research and development organization that provides biopharmaceutical clients and partners with comprehensive, fully integrated drug discovery and development services, from lead development and IND-enabling studies to GMP manufacture of drug product for clinical trials. Core expertise includes small and large molecule discovery, development and scale up, combined with unique technology platforms such as bioavailability enhancement of insoluble compounds. The company has 4 global sites: headquarters in San Diego, California and 3 major operations in Beijing, Shanghai and Jiangsu, China. BioDuro’s integrated China and US teams afford partners with the benefits of a truly global and seamless operation, significantly accelerating discovery and de-risking development to create higher value outcomes.
For more information, visit:
www.bioduro.com
www.linkedin.com/company/bioduro
About Advent International
Founded in 1984, Advent International is one of the largest and most experienced global private equity investors. The firm has invested in over 350 private equity transactions in 41 countries, and as of June 30, 2020, had $58.4 billion in assets under management. With 15 offices in 12 countries, Advent has established a globally integrated team of over 200 investment professionals across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia. The firm focuses on investments in five core sectors, including business and financial services; health care; industrial; retail, consumer and leisure; and technology. After 35 years dedicated to international investing, Advent remains committed to partnering with management teams to deliver sustained revenue and earnings growth for its portfolio companies.
For more information, visit:
www.adventinternational.com
About Bridgewest Capital
Founded in 1999, The Bridgewest Group is a closely held investment company that seeks to create long term value through application of superior industry knowledge, operational expertise and significant financial resources to attractive investment opportunities. The Group structures its global investments across four functional areas including private equity, real estate, capital markets and financial services. The Group’s private equity investments are primarily in biotech, wireless communications, infrastructure for IoT, and semiconductor. Bridgewest is based in San Diego, CA and has investments across the USA, Europe, Asia and Australasia.
For more information, visit:
www.bridgewestgroup.com
Contacts
For BioDuro-Sundia
media@bioduro-sundia.com
For Advent International
Asia:
FTI Consulting
Maggie Geng (Beijing) / Anna Bartram (Hong Kong)
Tel: | +8610 5634 1797 / +852 6790 1093
adventasia@fticonsulting.com
US:
Finsbury
Anna Epstein or Sophia Templin
Tel: | 646-805-2000
AdventInternational-US@finsbury.com