Raleigh contract research company PRA Health bought by Irish firm for $12 billion
Raleigh-based PRA Health Sciences, one of the largest contract research companies in the world, has been bought for $12 billion.
PRA said Wednesday it is entering into an agreement to be acquired by Icon, an Ireland-based contract research company. The newly combined PRA Health and Icon will be the second largest contract research organization in the world.
PRA’s headquarters, which have been in Raleigh since 2008, will move to Dublin as part of the combined company, according to a news release.
Contract research organization are a big part of the Triangle’s life science industry. The companies, sometimes referred to as CROs, provide research and clinical services for other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
PRA has 19,000 employees globally, including hundreds in the Triangle.
But Triangle-based CROs have been targeted by competitors in recent years, and the industry as a whole has trended toward consolidation.
In 2016, Durham-based Quintiles was bought by IMS Health for $23 billion, The News & Observer previously reported. Shortly after, the company changed names to IQVIA, and it now has split headquarters between Durham and Connecticut.
IQVIA is now the largest global CRO because of the merger.
Icon said its merger with PRA Health will combine the fifth- and sixth-largest CROs by revenue.
Icon forecasts that the merger will increase revenue by 20% after its first full year as a new company. Icon said that the combined companies could also expect to find annual cost savings of $150 million, though it didn’t say where those savings would come from.
“This union is really about growth, we’re going to be looking at how to grow the company,” Icon CEO Steve Cutler said during a call with investors on Wednesday, according to Endpoints News. “And so as an employee of the combined entity, there will be more opportunities for people going forward, and that’s something we want to emphasize to them as well.”
Neither Icon or PRA Health have responded to a request for comment from The News & Observer.
The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of the year.
Colin Shannon, CEO of PRA Health, said the merger will improve its ability to serve customers and patients. The combined companies, he said, will place a large emphasis on mobile health technologies.
“The way we do (develop medicine) now takes far too long and costs far too much,” Shannon said in a statement. “... The union of PRA and Icon will create an organization that has the people, data and technology to bring those cures to patients faster and more efficiently than ever before.”
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate
This story was originally published February 24, 2021 at 10:22 AM.