Dublin, Ireland, February 11th 2008: ICON (NASDAQ: ICLR), a global provider of outsourced development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries, today announced that it has acquired Healthcare Discoveries Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Catalyst Pharma Group Inc. Under the terms of the agreement ICON will pay an initial cash consideration of $12M. If certain performance milestones are achieved in 2008, a further consideration, up to a maximum of $10m may be payable.
Healthcare Discoveries operate an 85 bed clinical pharmacology unit in San Antonio, Texas and have significant experience of delivering high quality early phase development programmes.
“The acquisition of Healthcare Discoveries is an important step for ICON” commented ICON CEO Peter Gray. “It gives us a clinical pharmacology platform in the United States to complement our existing European Phase I operations. As well as gaining an outstanding facility, we are bringing into ICON an experienced team that has an excellent market reputation”
Healthcare Discoveries will become part of a comprehensive early phase development portfolio within the ICON Development Solutions division, which includes an existing 80 bed clinical pharmacology unit based in Manchester, England. Dr Thomas Frey, President of this division, added “The investment in Healthcare Discoveries will enable us to meet the growing demand for highly scientific first-in-human and full spectrum of clinical pharmacology studies that are a critical part of the drug development process. We look forward to integrating these additional capabilities into our broad drug development service portfolio”
Dr Richard Anthony, CEO of Catalyst Pharma Group commented “We are delighted that Healthcare Discoveries will become part of the ICON group. Catalyst has worked with Dr. Dennis Ruff, President of Healthcare Discoveries, for the past four years to build a reputation for excellence in Phase I research”. Dr. Anthony added “We believe ICON’s early phase development experience, focus on quality and business culture is an ideal fit with Healthcare Discoveries. Catalyst looks forward to continuing to work with Healthcare Discoveries in the future”.
About ICON plc
ICON plc is a global provider of outsourced development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. The Company specializes in the strategic development, management and analysis of programs that support clinical development - from compound selection to Phase I-IV clinical studies. ICON teams have successfully conducted over 1,900 development projects and over 2,300 consultancy engagements across all major therapeutic areas. ICON currently has approximately 5,600 employees, operating from 67 locations in 35 countries. Further information is available at www.iconplc.com
About Catalyst Pharma Group Inc
Catalyst Pharma Group Inc. (Catalyst) was formed specifically to meet the needs of companies with limited United States presence which are seeking to develop, approve, and market pharmaceuticals in the U.S. CPG is a drug development services organization specializing in providing contiguous, integrated, cost-effective drug development solutions through internal divisions and the combined services of our partnered companies. For more information visit www.catalystpharmagroup.com
Contacts:
ICON
Investor Relations 1-888-381-7923
or
Ciaran Murray CFO, + 353 –1-291-2000