Bionical, the integrated outsourced specialist to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and public health industry, has announced the strategic acquisition of Emas Pharma, a global CRO. Emas, which provides pharmaceutical development and clinical research services to biotech, medical device and specialized pharmaceutical companies worldwide, will join Bionical's existing fast growing clinical services business. Financials were not disclosed.

The acquisition is part of Bionical's strategy to provide high quality clinical, commercial and communications services to pharmaceutical, biotech and public health companies in the global healthcare industry.

The acquisition of Emas and the addition of clinical research, pharmacovigilance, regulatory, medical information and medical affairs capabilities will support Bionical's mission to deliver improved health outcomes for patients. Bionical's clinical division currently provides the supply of comparator products for clinical trials as well as nurse educator teams and public health services and has a wide base of clients internationally. Emas, which has a significant client base of emerging and specialized biopharma companies, brings an extended global footprint, with offices in the U.K., U.S., Canada, Australia and Ireland.

Graham McIntosh, CEO of Bionical, said, "Emas Pharma is a fantastic business with great people and an excellent reputation. Emas's services are highly complementary to Bionical's existing clinical trial services and the acquisition creates opportunities for both businesses to bring enhanced services to their clients. We are very pleased Peter Kennerley, Liz McCann and the Emas team are now a part of Bionical and I look forward to working with them to continue the global growth of Emas."

Dr Peter Kennerley, CEO of Emas Pharma, said, "We are delighted to join the Bionical group, which is a perfect synergy for Emas Pharma.  Being part of a wider family of companies means that we will be offering our clients an even broader range of services to complement our current offerings; from nurse specialists to help track patients lost to follow up, to call centers for Medical Information and from Clinical Trial Supply support to healthcare communications. Liz and I are proud of the excellent reputation for high quality, cost effective support that Emas has built up over the years.  We know that joining Mac and the Bionical team will help us extend that reputation even further."

Emas will continue to operate as a separate business under the existing leadership of Peter Kennerley and Peter will join the Bionical board.