Clinipace Worldwide Expands European Operations with Acquisition of Accovion

MORRISVILLE, N.C. (Business Wire) April 13, 2015 – Clinipace Worldwide, a global digital contract research organization (dCRO), announced today the completion of its merger with Accovion, a leading European full-service CRO headquartered in Frankfurt (Eschborn), Germany.

Accovion provides the entire range of clinical research services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. For more than 10 years, Accovion has been successfully conducting clinical trials across all phases of clinical development and is currently active in more than 20 countries. Bringing these organizations together strengthens Clinipace Worldwide’s operational and therapeutic expertise in Europe, with strong back-end and front-end services, and expands the company’s footprint to additional countries including Russia, Italy, Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Spain, France and Ukraine. 

Dr. Andree Beckerling, the CEO of Accovion, will have day-to-day operating responsibility for all of the European offices, including existing Clinipace staff and locations. Beckerling will report to Clinipace CEO, Jeff Williams, and will join the company’s Executive Committee (EC). 

“Life science firms, and the CRO industry that serves them, continue to undergo significant change. To be competitive in today’s market, it is important to have, among other things, a strong multi-national scale, broad therapeutic expertise and a better service delivery model,” observed Williams, CEO, Clinipace Worldwide. “Bringing our companies together substantially enhances our existing European footprint throughout western, central and eastern Europe and enables us to offer a competitive array of global clinical development and regulatory services in these regions. Supported by our technology-amplified dCRO delivery model, we now have a very compelling value proposition for sponsors looking for support in these markets.”

“Finding a partner that shared the same common business philosophy, values and quality expectations that provided our clients access to the United States and global markets was essential to our long-term success,” remarked Beckerling, CEO, Accovion. “Clinipace provides the right combination of complementary operational strengths, services and geography. Accovion clients gain access to Clinipace’s dCRO delivery model supported by their proprietary TEMPO™ eClinical platform and a comprehensive and integrated clinical operations, data management, biostatistics and regulatory consultancy with a large worldwide footprint.”

Today’s announcement marks the sixth acquisition by Clinipace in recent years. Together, Clinipace Worldwide will now be home to nearly 1,000 global staff. The combined company has managed over 3,000 clinical research studies and more than 300 regulatory and strategic development engagements.

Combined with Accovion, Clinipace now has clinical operations and staff in 39 countries. European operations are based in Frankfurt, Munich and Marburg, Germany; Prague, Czech Republic; Krakow, Poland; Timisoara, Romania; Moscow, Russia; Zurich, Switzerland; Milan, Italy; Lyon, France; Madrid, Spain; London, United Kingdom; and Kiev, Ukraine.

Terms of the transaction will not be disclosed.