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From North East England to the Southeastern United States, Sterling Pharma Solutions is making great things happen in the life sciences sector—and Womble Bond Dickinson is providing the transatlantic legal support to help Sterling achieve those goals.
UK-based Sterling Pharma Solutions has announced its acquisition of CiVentiChem , a contract development and manufacturing organization located in Cary, NC, near North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park. The acquisition marks Sterling’s first physical location in the US market, and will allow the company to better serve US clients and enhance its chemistry development capabilities to support pre-clinical and early phase clinical supply.
A transatlantic team led by Melinda Davis Lux (US) and Peter Snaith (UK) advised Sterling in this complex cross-border acquisition. The UK team at Womble Bond Dickinson has long represented Sterling on a range of legal matters in the UK, including both day-to-day guidance and corporate transactions.
“We are proud to have supported Sterling since 2006, and we are excited to be able to help them expand to the US,” Snaith said.
Davis Lux said, “This is a great example of the type of transatlantic collaboration Womble Bond Dickinson can provide to clients. Attorneys in the UK and US worked together as one team to facilitate this acquisition for Sterling in a smooth, streamlined process.” Womble Bond Dickinson attorneys Kristina Schwartz (US), Jonathan Cote (US), and Robert Phillips (UK), among other Womble Bond Dickinson team members in the US and UK, provided key support for the transaction.
Sterling is headquartered in Northumberland, just a short drive from Womble Bond Dickinson’s office in Newcastle. Likewise, the US facility is near the firm’s Research Triangle Park office.
In a statement, Sterling Pharma Solutions CEO Kevin Cook said, “We’re delighted to announce our acquisition of CiVentiChem in the US. We’ve been keen to expand our presence in the US market and the site’s capabilities complement our current service offering….The North American market now makes up 70 percent of our customer portfolio which was one of the major reasons behind the decision to look for a facility in the US. This has been primarily driven by the market’s emerging pharma sector and customer demand for our specialist capabilities in complex and challenging chemistry.”
Sterling Pharma Solutions is the UK’s largest provider of small molecule API development and manufacturing services to the pharmaceutical industry, specialising in handling challenging chemistries. With over 50 years’ experience, the team can manage the most complex API and API intermediate challenges and its facilities have the scale to go from proof-of-concept to commercial manufacture.
Melinda Davis Lux provides guidance on sophisticated merger, acquisition, and joint venture transactions. She has exceptional depth of experience working for global companies and with cross border M&A transactions, particularly in Europe, South America, and Asia.
Peter Snaith is the co-leader of Womble Bond Dickinson’s Manufacturing Sector Team and head of the firm's Chemicals Group. He brings over 20 years of experience guiding manufacturing clients in strategic growth and day-to-day activities. Before joining the firm, he worked as an in-house lawyer in the chemical industry, and he focuses his current practice on advising chemicals and chemistry-using companies.
