Mercachem And Syncom Join Forces To Form One Of Europe’s Leading Drug Discovery Contract Research Organizations

Nijmegen and Groningen, the Netherlands, 28 August 2017, Mercachem and Syncom, two of the leading European drug discovery Contract Research Organizations (CRO), today announced that the two companies are joining forces effective immediately. The resulting Mercachem-Syncom Group, with more than 300 employees and operations in Nijmegen and Groningen, the Netherlands and Prague, Czech Republic, becomes the premier European mid-sized CRO offering innovative best-in-class chemistry solutions.

Since their inception in 1997 and 1988 respectively, Mercachem and Syncom have established themselves as two of Europe’s leading drug discovery CROs with a focus on high-quality chemistry services to large and mid-size pharmaceutical, life sciences and innovative chemistry customers worldwide. Today’s merger enables the Mercachem-Syncom Group to broaden its offering of integrated drug discovery services and invest into state-of-the-art knowledge base and facilities to address clients’ growing demand for outsourcing solutions. The merger of Mercachem and Syncom and the Group’s growth strategy with a further expansion both organically as well as through partnerships and further acquisitions is supported by Gilde Healthcare, a leading investor in healthcare together with Dutch pension fund service provider PGGM, as co-investor.

Ton Vries, CEO of Syncom, comments: “We are extremely proud to join forces with Mercachem. The pharmaceutical industry is demanding a huge bandwith of highly complex chemistry solutions. Mercachem and Syncom share the same cultural and scientific background and both organizations have an exceptional track-record in satisfying the growing outsourcing demand of the industry. Combining our forces will further enhance our ability to satisfy our clients by providing more capacity and collective chemistry know-how.”

Eelco Ebbers, Managing Director of Mercachem adds: “Today’s merger will take our ability to support our customers and projects with fully integrated drug discovery services to the next level. In Syncom we have found the right partner to form a leading mid-sized CRO, small enough to care and large enough to matter. Together, we are fully equipped to grow the Group towards a broader service offering. For our customers, the Mercachem-Syncom Group will provide flexible and in best-in-class chemistry solutions, from design and synthesis of small molecule hits, to the delivery of first GMP batches of identified clinical candidates.”

About the Mercachem-Syncom Group

The Mercachem-Syncom Group has a proven track record of almost 30 years supporting leading pharma and biotechnology companies with innovative and complex medicinal chemistry programs. Starting as a chemistry service provider, the Group has transformed into an integrated drug discovery CRO offering innovative chemistry, medicinal chemistry, library synthesis, early process research services and cGMP manufacturing services to accelerate the drug discovery and development process in a flexible and cost-effective way. Furthermore, the Group has developed independently novel chemical matter in a number of areas, including CDK8 and sumoylation inhibitors (Sumiq Therapeutics) which will be further developed in milestone-based partnerships. The Mercachem-Syncom Group is recognized as a world leader in chiral chemistry with a strong focus on chiral resolution technology. With close to 250 chemists (> 50% PhD) working in state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, the Group serves many pharmaceutical and biotech companies throughout the world and is renowned for its high-quality services and problem solving capabilities.