Setting up healthcare units for independent success
Freeing and nurturing high potential assets can help them to truly thrive, and Inflexion has combined its experience in healthcare as well as carve-outs to help several high-potential businesses thrive in the sector.
Inflexion has extensive experience in executing carve-outs from both public and private owners, consistently unlocking ambition and accelerating growth. Importantly, this doesn’t have to mean relinquishing control; Inflexion is supporting a growing number of minority strategic partnerships to drive value.
Healthcare is a core sector focus for Inflexion and the firm has partnered with over a dozen businesses in the space. Three of these were formerly part of larger entities and are thriving since Inflexion led their respective carve-outs.
“There are a number of healthcare companies that contain high-potential but non-core divisions, and a carve-out could help unleash the full potential of these,” says Andrew Neville, Partner in Inflexion’s Healthcare team. “With deep expertise in the sector and experience in effecting both traditional carve-outs as well as minority partnerships, we can offer genuine flexibility in realising value in these businesses.”
Rosemont Pharmaceuticals Since the firm’s carve-out in 2020, Rosemont’s annual turnover has more than doubled and EBITDA tripled, largely off the back of over 10 new product launches and a £5m expansion in capacity. A firm focus on international expansion and M&A are helping Rosemont maintain its impressive momentum.
CNX Therapeutics In 2021 Inflexion created UK pharma platform CNX Therapeutics by carving out Sunovion Pharmaceuticals’ European operations. Revenues have quadrupled since then, with M&A accelerating its success.
GlobalData Healthcare In 2023 Inflexion partnered with GlobalData Plc to carve out its largest division as a standalone entity in a transaction valuing the business at £1.1 billion. GlobalData was able to retain a majority stake in the business as it works with Inflexion to accelerate organic growth and pursue selective M&A.
Inflexion has a proven track record in effecting carve-outs and supporting their growth as an independent entity.
Rosemont Pharmaceuticals
The liquid pharmaceuticals business had 50 years’ experience and had grown to be the UK leader, but its listed parent Perrigo was transforming to a more consumer-focused self-care company. This meant that despite its strong niche and attractive financial profile, Rosemont was not a priority for investment given Perrigo’s strategic aims.
Rosemont management were looking to grow the product pipeline, license deals, undertake M&A and geographic expansion, and CEO Howard Taylor describes Inflexion’s proactive approach and subsequent deal in 2020 as “probably the best thing that could have happened to us”.
Since the carve-out, Rosemont’s annual EBITDA has more than tripled, with an ambitious M&A programme helping to accelerate growth further.
The firm’s focus is now firmly on international growth as it pursues its ambition of reaching 1 million patients with liquid medicines. This aligns well with Inflexion’s international footprint as Rosemont’s focus on the US and UK will expand, with Canada, France, and Germany also a priority. Partnering is a simple way to enter new markets, and Rosemont has struck several international deals with Juno in Canada, Jacobson in Hong Kong and Exeltis in Mexico. A regulatory backlog can create headwinds for pharmaceutical manufacturers, and so Rosemont is pursuing M&A as a way to grow.
Just 18 months post independence, Rosemont announced its own carve out of Essential Pharma’s liquid portfolio from its parent to expand Rosemont’s offering.
Then in 2023, Rosemont acquired Lucis Pharma, a specialist pharmaceutical business in the UK to expand Rosemont’s existing portfolio and gain access to a pipeline of products, providing high quality pharmaceuticals to the UK and overseas markets.
Rosemont formalised its M&A efforts at the end of 2023 with a standalone team for corporate development as well as a dedicated sales function in the US and UK. It’s paying off: in summer 2024, Rosemont acquired Sabal Therapeutics and its affiliates Metacel Pharmaceuticals, Palmetto Pharmaceuticals, Athena Bioscience and Sarras Health, a group of privately owned specialty pharmaceutical companies and distributors of prescription liquid medicines based in the US state of Georgia. The purchase enables Rosemont to fully commercialise its technologies in the US as it provides a route to directly supply medicines. Last summer also saw Rosemont acquire a Contract Development Manufacturer Organisation in Greece. Pharma-Data specialises in R&D and product development and has its own Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) approved R&D Galenical and Analytical laboratory in Athens. The company also undertakes product development, dossier writing, technology transfer, licensing and regulatory services.
CNX Therapeutics
In 2021 Inflexion acquired CNX Therapeutics, a UK-based pharmaceutical platform focused on providing life-changing medicines, out of Sunovion Pharmaceuticals’ European operations. It went on to double in size a year later with the acquisition of Synchrony Pharma and over the course of 2023 and 2024 expanded its hospital-injectable portfolio and international presence by acquiring three cancer support products from global pharmaceuticals company Clinigen Limited and two CNS products from Sanofi and another two from Eisai. Its efforts were boosted at the end of 2023 with a debt facility secured to enable strategic partnerships and transactions across Europe to support its product development, commercialisation and distribution.
Each of these products was acquired with the aim of adding scale, diversification, new in-region direct capabilities, and laying the foundation needed for CNX to achieve its long-term plan.
Management is working with Inflexion to build a scaled platform that targets specialist prescribed therapies, such as CNS and those used in hospital. The business is building on its existing infrastructure and capabilities to create a leading platform with a data-driven and sustainability-driven philosophy at its heart. CNX intends to quadruple revenues again through a combination of organic and inorganic growth, as the platform benefits from the commercial infrastructure it has built and its increasing brand recognition within the ecosystem. Going forward, an increasingly important part of the organic growth story will come from in-licensing specialist products and commercialising them in markets CNX has established a direct presence in. Recent product launches are proving out this part of the strategy
GlobalData Healthcare
At the end of 2023 Inflexion partnered with GlobalData Plc to carve out its Healthcare division as a standalone entity in a transaction valuing the business at £1.1 billion. The data business is the largest division of GlobalData, listed on London’s AIM, and employs over 1,000 people across 10 countries. Its subscription service offers a one-stop data solution for over 2,000 global customers across large global pharma, pharma & biotech, pharma suppliers, professional services and medical devices manufacturers.
This transaction allowed GlobalData to retain a majority stake in the business as it works with Inflexion to accelerate organic growth primarily through securing new clients globally and further cross-selling to existing clients, continuing to invest in AI, product and content, as well as pursuing selective M&A.
Mike Danson, CEO and largest shareholder of Global Data plc “The investment highlights the significant value in our unique data platform and gives us the flexibility to launch a more ambitious approach to growth investment across our portfolio. We believe that we can create substantial value for all shareholders and accelerate GlobalData’s profitable growth over the coming years.”
A part of this plan is leveraging AI. A focus since 2023, this is helping GlobalData to enhance customer experience, streamline data production, improve internal efficiencies, and develop predictive capabilities. The firm is integrating natural language interfaces to enable clients to access complex pharmaceutical data through conversational queries, facilitating tailored insights.
M&A is also playing a role, and the beginning of 2025 saw GlobalData acquire Deallus, a competitive intelligence solutions provider focused on the global life sciences sector. The first acquisition since the Inflexion-led carve-out should help GlobalData to build more embedded relationships with its clients and create opportunities to cross-sell and upsell to new and existing clients.
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