GHO Capital & Ardian Team With Envision Leadership To Acquire The Envision Pharma Group From The Halifax Group

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GHO Capital, the European specialist investor in healthcare, in collaboration with Ardian, the independent private investment company, has partnered with the Envision Pharma Group’s (“Envision”) leadership team to acquire Envision, a leading Medical Affairs-focused scientific communications and technology solutions provider, from the Halifax Group.

“We believe that Ardian’s transparent management-centric culture, coupled with our global ability to support development through organic and external growth, were the key elements in winning the support of Envision’s management and executing this acquisition.”

The management team and employees, led by Brian Hepburn (CEO and founder), Greg Caswill (Chairman and founder), John Gillie (CFO), and Joseph Brown (President Envision Technology Solutions; ETS), will be reinvesting and continuing to lead the business in the next evolution of its growth.

Operating globally, Envision is a recognised partner for Medical Affairs organisations, providing scientific data communication services and industry-leading technology solutions to biopharmaceutical and medical devices companies on a global basis. Envision helps its clients commercialise new compounds via strategic data-communication planning, medical writing, medical communications services, and providing best-in-class technology across the key operational functions of Medical Affairs.

Since inception in 2001, Envision has enjoyed strong year-on-year organic growth of c.20%. In addition to this organic growth, the company recently made two strategic acquisitions, which extended its global reach into the Asia-Pacific region and expanded its range of communication services for the healthcare industry. Envision’s service and solution offering has grown from publication planning and delivery, to encompass medical strategy consultancy, Market Access communications, medical communications & Medical Science Liaison support, digital and creative services, and policy and operational excellence consultancy.

With the support of GHO Capital and Ardian, Envision will launch its new iEnvision™ Medical Affairs platform to provide a suite of purpose-built solutions to facilitate and support industry best practice within medical affairs organisations.

Brian Hepburn, CEO of Envision, said: “This partnership with GHO Capital and Ardian provides the resources, expertise, and market knowledge for Envision to realise the next stage of its development and become the leading solution provider to the Medical Affairs departments within the biopharmaceutical industry. We are uniquely positioned to support our clients via our in-depth, strategically focused, scientific communication capabilities and expanding range of technology solutions. With the support of GHO Capital and Ardian, we will continue to invest in these core competencies and further extend the market reach of our enterprise technology platform, iEnvision™.”

Mark Braganza, Partner at GHO Capital, added: “Envision is a high growth company operating in the attractive healthcare outsourced services sub-sector with a strong platform and an international, blue-chip customer base. The opportunity to partner with Ardian and the management team, allowing us to pool our significant expertise in consulting and healthcare IT, was therefore extremely compelling for our fund. We look forward to our partnership in supporting the next phase of Envision’s continued growth.”

Simon Cottle, Managing Director of Ardian Mid Cap Buyout in London, said: “After analysing the outsourced Medical Affairs services and software market, we identified Envision as having the highest potential for further growth. Their management team has done a great job in creating a market-leading proposition and we look forward to working with them in the next stage of the business’ development.”Bruno Ladriere, Managing Director of Ardian Mid Cap Buyout in London, added: “We believe that Ardian’s transparent management-centric culture, coupled with our global ability to support development through organic and external growth, were the key elements in winning the support of Envision’s management and executing this acquisition.”

– Ends –

About GHO Capital

Global Healthcare Opportunities, or GHO Capital Partners LLP, was founded in 2014 as a specialist healthcare investment adviser based in London. Our vision is to apply global capabilities and perspectives to build a world-class healthcare specialist private equity firm by recognising and seizing the highly attractive and underpenetrated European market opportunity. We have a powerful combination of transaction, investment and industry skills which sets us apart from traditional private equity firms. For further information, please visit www.ghocapital.com.

About Envision

Founded in 2001, Envision Pharma is an international, innovative global technology and scientific communication company serving pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies. Initially focusing on re-inventing the way biopharma companies managed their global data communications programs through the use of smart technology and best-in-class publication planning; Envision has evolved to become a leading provider of evidence communication services and Medical Affairs solutions, encompassing all aspects of scientifically driven data dissemination activities required to support a successful access to market strategy for new biopharma compounds.

This capability of the organization is further enhanced with industry-leading, complementary technology solutions across the Medical Affairs responsibilities. Envision has grown steadily under consistent leadership across its three core business areas in support of the Medical Affairs team that include (i) Evidence Communication – including strategic publication planning, data dissemination services, medical education, and Market Access communications; (ii) Technology Solutions – design, development, implementation, and support of innovative and strategic management software, purpose-built for life-science clients, including, publication planning and management (Datavision^®), clearance approval (Clear^®), activity request management (Visiontracker^®), workflow management for HEOR activities (Visiontracker HEOR™), searchable repository for the sharing of appropriate educational and training materials (Library™), and next generation solution for managing medical information enquiries (Medinfo™); (iii) Consulting Solutions – policy, process, compliance, and guideline consultancy to life-science companies.

Envision currently has ten offices, three in the United Kingdom – Horsham, Wilmslow, and London; five in the United States – Philadelphia, PA, Southport, CT, Madison, NJ, Stirling, NJ, Glastonbury, CT; and two in Asia Pacific – Tokyo and Sydney. The company employs approximately 450 team members, including over 185 highly qualified and experienced in-house medical writers and a more than 80-strong technology solutions team providing platform development and customer support. Envision currently provides service and product solutions to more than 75 client companies, including 18 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies.

About Ardian

Ardian, founded in 1996 and led by Dominique Senequier, is an independent private investment company with assets of US$55bn managed or advised in Europe, North America, or Asia. The company, which is majority-owned by its employees, keeps entrepreneurship at its heart and delivers investment performance to its global investors while fuelling growth in economies across the world. Ardian’s investment process embodies three values: excellence, loyalty, and entrepreneurship.

Ardian maintains a truly global network, with more than 410 employees working through twelve offices in Paris, London, Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, Zurich, New York, San Francisco, Beijing, Singapore, Jersey, and Luxembourg. The company offers its 470 investors a diversified choice of funds covering the full range of asset classes through Ardian Direct Funds (comprising Ardian Mid Cap Buyout, Ardian Expansion, Ardian Growth, and Ardian Co-Investment), Ardian Infrastructure, Ardian Funds of Funds (comprising primary, early secondary, and secondary activities), Ardian Private Debt, Ardian Real Estate, and customized mandate investment solutions with Ardian Mandates.