The sale to Clinigen represents a money multiple of 22x CBPE’s £9.4m investment in IDIS.
IDIS is the global leader in providing regulatory and ethically compliant access to unlicensed medicines for healthcare professionals and their patients with unmet medical needs. The business supplies medication in almost 100 countries to over 100,000 patients p.a. Its customers include 17 of the top 20 global pharma companies as well as biotech companies, hospitals and retail pharmacies.
CBPE acquired IDIS in 2005 for an Enterprise Value of £22m. Under CBPE ownership, EBITDA has grown from £3.6m to £12.5m in the year to 30 November 2014. This growth has accelerated and EBITDA over the last 12 months (“LTM”) had grown to £15.6m by 28 February 2015.
Headcount has increased from 69 to 189 under CBPE’s ownership.
Under CBPE’s ownership, IDIS has grown to become the clear global leader in the operation of Managed Access Programmes for pharmaceutical companies. These programmes are designed to provide access to unlicensed medicines not available to patients via the traditional access route (many approved medicines may still may be unlicensed in certain countries), providing benefits not just for patients and healthcare professionals who have run out of treatment options, but also for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that hold the products that could help.
The last two years in particular have seen a significant broadening of the customer base and service delivery capability. In the year to 30 November 2014 the business started 22 new Managed Access Programmes and a further 8 contracts have been signed in the 4 months to 31 March 2015. This brings the total number of programmes that IDIS is operating to 66 as at 31 March 2015.
The initial deal was led by Sean Dinnen, who also led the exit with Peter Gissel and with support from Naveen Passi.
CBPE was advised by Julian Hudson and Chris Whittaker of Rothschild.
IDIS is now the clear market leader in a market with highly attractive long term growth fundamentals. CBPE have been an outstanding, partner, fully supporting us as we have grown the business over the long term. The acquisition by Clinigen marks the beginning of a new and exciting chapter in the continued development of the business.
The success of IDIS illustrates the benefit of taking a long term approach to a portfolio company and is an example of the creation of a clear global leader by CBPE alongside the management team.