Light – PRA Health Sciences made a financial announcement on Wednesday morning exceeding Financial Street’s expectations – and then announced that it had been acquired by Ireland-based IK ON in a O 12 billion deal. As a result, Raleigh will lose the company’s headquarters.
The joint ICON-PRA company will be based in Dublin.
And the ICO is paying a big price – about 30% of the PRA’s share price before the deal is announced. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.
Shares of PRAH rose more than 20% to 4 154 on the news. The firm has about 17,000 employees worldwide. The company moved its headquarters to Raleigh (2008) (currently located on Parklake Avenue near Crabtree Valley Mall) and has about 600 employees, according to the Triangle Book List.
Colin Shannon, chairman and CEO of PRA, will join the board of the joint venture after the deal closes.
ICON, which has approximately 19,000 employees, was a competitor in the global life sciences business known as PRA contract research institutes or CROs.
Triangle is the hub for core operations for large companies such as the CRO industry, home or site Sinos Health, IQVIA, Labcorp, Peraxel and PPD.
Icon CEO Steve Cutler will run the joint venture.
In the announcement, Shenon explained the reason for the deal:
“I joined PRA 13 years ago to help build a company that would make a difference in the world and change the way new drugs were developed. The way we do it now takes too long and costs too much. Seriously ill patients do not wait for treatment. Wise populations can’t wait for cess. Counting every day. COVID-19 created a platform for change that we cannot ignore. The epidemic accelerated the adoption of mobile health technologies and healthcare intelligence tools – tools that helped develop PRAs – at an unprecedented rate. The union of PRA and ICON will create an organization that has the people, data and technology to bring that treatment to patients faster and more effectively than ever before. We are delighted to be joining Icon, a company with the same culture and values. I am deeply grateful to the 19,000 talented employees of PRA who have helped us bring this vision closer to reality. We stand together now because patients can’t wait. ”
PRA shareholders will receive cash 80 cash and 0.4125 shares of ICON stock.
ICNR trades on the Nasdaq under the ICLR symbol. ICON shares fell 7% to 195 dollars on the news.
The joint venture will set a new precedent for accelerating clinical research and bringing new drugs and devices to market, said Cutler, CEO of Icon.
“Both ICON and PRA have strong growth and performance records and we are ready to take this unique position of strength forward by using outstanding talent in both organizations. With an expanded and deeper operational scale combined with innovative technology and real-world data solutions, we enable all customers to reduce their development time and costs. We will be a leading provider of de-centralized and hybrid trial solutions through the integration of our data capabilities, health platform and Ac Kselecare site network. A full year 1 post-close transaction would be very appropriate. “
