hVivo expands with acquisition of German clinical trial units
Pharmaceutical services firm hVivo, formerly Open Orphan, has acquired two clinical trial units in Germany from CRS Clinical Research Services Management GmbH for a cash consideration of €10m.
The 94-bed unit in Mannheim and 26-bed unit in Kiel will establish a significant European footprint for AIM-listed hVIVO, the business said.
The Mannheim and Kiel units recorded unaudited revenues of €19.9m in the financial year ended December 31, 2024, with an adjusted Ebitda loss of €1.8m.
Under hVIVO’s ownership the two units will undergo an investment and restructuring programme expected to cost around.€2.5m this year.
CRS is a well-established business in the industry providing services for early-stage clinical development. The acquisition has been funded from hVivo’s existing cash resources which stood at £44.2m at the end of last year.
Meanwhile, hVivo, which is one of businessman Cathal Friel’s stable of emerging ventures, runs drug trials known as human challenge studies testing infectious and respiratory disease products from its London clinics. It issued a trading update for 2024 on Wednesday.
The unaudited numbers show revenue up 11.9pc to £62.7m and full year Ebitda margins of around 26pc, versus 23.3pc a year earlier.
The significant uplift in revenue and margins was driven by strong operational delivery including recruitment of a record number of human challenge trial (HCT) participants, the company said.
In 2024, the business opened the world’s largest commercial human challenge trial unit, a state-of-the-art 50-bedroom CL-3 facility.
"This milestone enabled the group to inoculate the highest number of participants to date in its HCT studies, across seven challenge agents. The group benefitted from the availability of three quarantine facilities which led to the delivery of several projects ahead of schedule, enhancing revenues and margins,” the company said.
Dr Yamin ‘Mo’ Khan, chief executive officer of hVIVO, said: “2024 was a tremendous year for the group, with the delivery of record revenue and Ebitda margins as well as laying broader foundations for future growth.
“Our newly launched services executed in our existing infrastructure, benefited our margins and cash generation. I am impressed with how well these new services are performing since their recent launch and this, combined with the expansion of our human challenge offering and strategic M&A (with our first acquisition announced today), has enhanced our ability to deliver revenues of £100m by 2028,” he said.
Reporting on:independent.ie