Advent completes Suven Pharma deal

Private equity investor Advent International has completed the acquisition of 50.1% stake in Indian CDMO Suven Pharma for $5.95/share, as originally agreed in December 2022. This will shortly trigger an open offer for the remaining 26% not being retained by the founding Jasti family. The move follows approval by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in August.

Advent’s stated plan is “to foster Suven’s capabilities to help it become one of the leading companies in the CDMO space globally” with $1 billion/year in sales. As part of this, it will evaluate merging Suven with its portfolio company, Cohance Lifesciences.

“The potential combination of Suven and Cohance has the ability to become a powerhouse operating across the pharmaceutical value chain. The combined entity will have three massive growth vectors across pharma CDMO, speciality chemicals and merchant API, each of which have strong macro tailwinds,” said Pankaj Patwari, managing director of Advent in India.

Suven Pharma, which was demerged from its parent entity, Suven Life Sciences, in 2020, carries out most of its business with innovators and follows the customer from Phase I to commercialisation. It claims a strong pipeline of Phase III and late Phase II molecules, with over 100 active projects. Sales and EBITDA margins have grown by over 20% and over 43% in the last four years.

A new management team has been named, with Annaswamy Vaidheesh as executive chairman, V.Prasada Raju as managing director and Sudhir Kumar Singh as CEO. Suven founder Venkateswarlu Jasti will be on the advisory board, alongside former senior figures from Dr Reddy’s, Lonza, Patheon and Biogen.

In addition, Brian Shaughnessy, formerly with Aragen, Dr Reddy’s and Piramal among others, has been recruited as worldwide head of sales. Others with experience of the North American and European markets will also be added as Advent seeks to extend Suven’s reach in global markets.

“Suven already works with nine of the largest 15 pharma companies worldwide, supplying them mostly with registered starting materials and intermediates but also blockbusters,” said Shaughnessy, who was speaking with SCM at CPHI Barcelona on 25 October.

“It never had a commercial team as such before but I have already heard a lot of positive feedback from customers regarding delivery and reliability as a supplier. We will be seeking to bring more robustness and efficiency to the systems and to enhance brand awareness through messaging. The strategy will continue to be focused on Big Pharma and from late-stage R&D to commercialisation.”