| Date | Type | Rationale | Acquirer | Target | Description |
| 3/19/2012 | CRO Expansion | Strengthen Existing Capability | inVentiv Health | Kforce Clinical Research | inVentiv will acquire contract staffing firm Kforce Clinical Research (KCR) for $50 million in cash, which will enable it to strengthen its functional service provider and staffing capabilities |
| 3/7/2012 | CRO Expansion | New Service Offering | Pierrel Research | mondoBIOTECH | Swiss CRO Pierrel aims to "develop the existing scalable technological platform owned by mondoBIOTECH" as per its CEO |
| 3/1/2012 | CRO Expansion | Strengthen Existing Capability | ICON | PriceSpective | ICON's acquisition of PriceSpective, a value strategy consultancy, will enable it to strengthen its expertise in value-based pricing and market access |
| 3/1/2012 | PE Investment | Arsenal Capital Partners | Western Institutional Review Board | NY-based PE firm has acquired WIRB, a provider of independent institutional reivew board and biosafety services | |
| 2/20/2012 | CRO Expansion | Strengthen Existing Capability | Venn Life Sciences / Encorium | Merger beween the 2 CROs, which will be headquartered in Ireland, and will have additional working capital for growth | |
| 2/15/2012 | CRO Expansion | New Service Offering | Ockham | Nexus | Oncology CRO Ockhma has acquired Nexus Oncology, so as to gain capability in regulatory and EMEA pharmacovigilance services |
| 2/14/2012 | PE Investment | Linden Capital Partners | SeraCare | SeraCare has accepted a $82mn offer from a US private equity fund. Linden is a Chicago-based healthcare-focused fund | |
| 1/19/2012 | CRO Expansion | Strengthen Existing Capability | inVentiv Health | SDI (Medical Audit Segment) | The acquisition of SDI's medical audit segment will boost inVentiv's capabilities in the market research and analytics space. SDI's subscription-based audits will complement inVentiv's existing offerings |
| 1/18/2012 | CRO Expansion | New Service Offering | Quintiles | Oxford Cancer Biomarkers (OCB) | Quintiles has invested £3mn in UK-based biomarker R&D company, to produce oncology biomarkers for drugs under development, and those already in the market |
| 1/5/2012 | Business Expansion | ValiRx | Pharmatest Services (Biomarkers business) | UK-based biotech ValiRx bought the biomarkers unit of Finnish preclinical CRO Pharmatest, which will support development of the latter's prostrate cancer development program. Included in the deal are several categories of IP | |
M&A Tracker
CRO Expansion: Acquisition by a CRO with the objective of strengthening existing capability, adding new service offerings or gaining access to new geographic markets
Businesss Expansion: Strategic acquisition by a healthcare-focused entity
PE Investment: Recapitalization or private placement by a Private Equity fund or an Individual investor
