Alantra advises NeoHealthHub on its merger with Germany’s PharmaLex

Oct 2022

Sell-side advisory

London – Alantra, the global investment banking and asset management specialist, has advised the shareholders of NeoHealthHub Limited, a pharmaceutical and healthcare services consultancy, on its merger with PharmaLex Group. Germany-based PharmaLex is a leading provider of specialised services for the pharma, biotech and MedTech industries worldwide.

Founded in 2013, NeoHealthHub (NHH) supports its customers by offering innovative and comprehensive market access, data and capability development solutions across all phases of the pharmaceutical and healthcare brand lifecycle through its four business units – NeoNavitas, NeoN, NeoSypher and NeoOptima.

NHH has its headquarters in Lutterworth, Leicestershire, employing around 50 people who provide their expertise to a diversified and loyal client base through unique, customised solutions designed to achieve the best outcomes for each client, leveraging their deep understanding of the differing processes across the entire UK healthcare system.

The agreement with NeoHealthHub will be an important step in building a pan-European market access practice covering major markets, including the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, France and the Nordics.

This transaction marks a highly active period for Alantra in medical communications and consulting, having recently advised Strategic North on its sale to Prescient Healthcare Group and 90TEN on its sale to Envision Pharma; the management buy-out of Republic M! backed by Queen’s Park Equity; Prescient Healthcare Group and Helios on investment from Bridgepoint Development Capital and NorthEdge, respectively; and Bridgepoint on its acquisition of Fishawack Health.

The transaction was led by Anthony Harrington, Partner at Alantra, supported by Matt Kumeta, Vice President, and Tom Tett, Associate, all members of the Alantra Healthcare Team.

Anthony Harrington, Partner, commented, “It was a pleasure to have advised Simon and his team on the merger of NeoHealthHub with PharmaLex. They have built a very strong business and we are delighted to have helped them find the right partner for their next growth phase. This transaction also demonstrates Alantra’s continued strength in medical communications M&A and in pharma commercialisation more generally – this is our ninth transaction in the last two years alone, with several others ongoing. We continue to see strong interest from both strategic and private equity investors into this sector.”

Simon Doyle, CEO of NeoHealthHub, said, “We’ve known Anthony for several years and met regularly to talk about strategy, when would be the right time to partner with another business and preparing NHH for a transaction. That guidance and preparation proved invaluable when we started the process with PharmaLex. The Alantra team were everything we could ask for in a trusted advisor – they understood our business model and the market dynamics, identified the key value drivers and provided the strategic guidance we needed to ensure a successful completion. We’ve achieved a great outcome with a partner who shares similar values and corporate culture and created an organisation that allows us to operate in a truly agile way, maximising opportunities as they emerge.”

Dr. Thomas Dobmeyer, CEO of Pharmalex said, “The merger with NHH is a welcome step for both our businesses and we are delighted to welcome the talented and knowledgeable team of market access, data and capabilities experts. By combining our expertise, we are better able to support our clients globally with their market access, data and capability needs and at the same time build a very successful local market access business that now includes the UK.”