Crown Bioscience, a contract research organization (CRO) and a JSR Life Sciences company, announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the IndivuServ business unit of Indivumed GmbH. A Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) was executed in December 2022, and subject to customary closing adjustments the transaction is expected to close in April 2023.
What are the specifics of the acquisition agreement?
Indivumed GmbH, founded in Germany in 2002, has an industry-leading and global reputation for the provision and analysis of clinical biospecimens. The transaction will generate two separate Indivumed entities, ‘Indivumed Therapeutics’ and ‘Indivumed Services’.
The latter, which is the current IndivuServ business unit of the company, will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Crown Bioscience and will incorporate all associated laboratory operations and staff located in Hamburg, Germany and Frederick, MD, USA.
‘Indivumed Therapeutics’, currently known as the IndivuType business unit will continue its groundbreaking work of translating high-quality biospecimens into multi-omics data and focus together with its clinical partners on data- and AI-driven therapy development in oncology.
Crown Bioscience’s proposed acquisition of ‘Indivumed Services’ includes both the expertly curated and characterized biobank comprising of almost one million samples with associated clinical data, and a network of more than 60 clinical divisions in the US, Europe, and Asia.
This network provides access to surgical biospecimens and blood samples annotated with comprehensive clinical data, all obtained in accordance with Indivumed’s unique SOPs to assure unrivaled quality, and thus suitable for multi-omics analyses and model development.
The collection and associated network will enable and support further expansion of Crown Bioscience’s biomarker development service offerings, and market-leading patient-derived xenograft (PDX), ex vivo patient tissue (EVPT), and in vitro tumor organoid platforms.
What does this mean for Bioscience and Indivumed?
‘Indivumed Therapeutics’ will continue its cooperation with cancer clinics in Europe, Americas, and Asia and leverage its multi-omics database and AI analytics to focus on identifying and validating novel targets and biomarkers to develop individualized cancer therapies.
As part of the Agreement announced, ‘Indivumed Therapeutics’ and Crown Bioscience with ‘Indivumed Services’ have additionally committed to a multi-year strategic partnership covering sample access and CRO service provision, while Hartmut Juhl, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Indivumed Group, will join Crown Bioscience’s Scientific Advisory Board.
Armin Spura, PhD, CEO of Crown Bioscience said; “The acquisition of ‘Indivumed Services’ reflects Crown Bioscience’s commitment to expanding our translational research to provide our clients with superior options for bridging the gap between preclinical and clinical research. Everyone at Crown Bioscience is delighted to be welcoming the talented staff of ‘Indivumed Services’ to the company, and excited about the long-term potential of our new relationship.”
Prof. Dr. Hartmut Juhl, Founder and CEO of Indivumed Group, said “I am thrilled about the strategic partnership with Crown Bioscience, the first-in-class CRO. For 20 years Indivumed has driven the advancement of precision oncology by its CRO services and its R&D activities.”
“Now, we can focus on our data analytics-driven drug and diagnostic development while we also benefit from the enhanced strength of Crown Bioscience’s R&D oncology offerings. With this partnership Crown Bioscience and Indivumed create a powerhouse for the advancement of precision oncology. Further, it fills me with great pride that my hometown Hamburg is emerging as a leading oncology biotech location,” Prof. Dr. Hartmut Juhl concluded.
