BioFocus to buy CDDH for L27.5 million

UK pharmaceutical chemistry services firm BioFocus has signed anagreement to acquire Cambridge Drug Discovery Holdings for L27.5 million ($39.6 million) by offering a total of almost 5.4 million new shares. BioFocus made a pretax profit of L1.4 million in 2000 on sales of L5.6 million, while CDDH's losses were L3.6 million last year, on turnover of L1.6 million.

The attraction of CDDH lies in the fact that its area of expertise is providing biology-related services through its assay and high-throughput screening systems. BioFocus acknowledged this point, saying that, in bringing together expertise "in the two fundamental disciplines of drug discovery," chemistry and biology, the enlarged group will be able to both serve the market with greater value "and generate potential downstream revenue."

The new entity should also have a good geographical spread, as BioFocus has a strong market presence in the USA and continental Europe, whereas CDDH has principally focused on the UK and Japan. The firms said that the integration of their two businesses will start to take place shortly, a move which will be helped by the proximity of each company's facilities in the Cambridge area.