Open Orphan plc (LON:ORPH), announced this week that it is to acquire CHIMagents Limited for a nominal sum.
Cathal Friel CEO of Open Orphan told DirectorsTalk,
“There are only two commercial suppliers of challenge studies in the world; hVIVO which has been doing so for around 30 years, former hVIVO employee Adrian Wildfire left around 5 years ago to join SGS in Belgium, and built a small team there that started to compete with hVIVO.
We have persuaded Adrian and a number of his colleagues to come back to hVIVO / Open Orphan and this is perfect timing because the return of Adrian and his team means hVIVO / Open Orphan are now the absolute key supplier of challenge studies in the world, particularly for COVID 19. Adrian and his colleague Martin Schutten had earlier this year started their own small vehicle call CHIMagents (http://chimagents.com/) and as part of them returning to hVIVO / Open Orphan, we have agreed an option to acquire them for a nominal consideration over the coming month or two.
We are likely to keep CHIMagents as a standalone entity under the Open Orpan family of entities as it will be a very useful and complementary company to have on board.”
