Borders-based industry veteran Tom Stratford has launched a new pharmaceuticals business with the acquisition of Glasgow's Stirling Anglian Pharmaceuticals.
The deal is backed by private equity firm Apposite Capital, which has 12 healthcare businesses in its European portfolio of commercial stage companies. The acquisition gives Mr Stratford's Kelso Pharma an initial UK platform for further acquisitions, product in-licensing and geographic expansion within Europe.
The former ProStrakan and Kyowa Kirin International (KKI) chief executive is joined at Kelso by Allan Watson, previously chief financial officer at KKI, and former KKI general counsel Andrew McLean.
READ MORE: Scottish dental tech firm Calcivis raises £1.52m ahead of 2022 US launch
"Our aim is to enhance value for the healthcare system by providing branded medicines that improve the lives of patients in a cost-effective and ethical way," Mr Stratford said.
“Stirling Anglian’s business is a perfect fit with that vision and with Apposite Capital’s financial support it provides us with a UK platform from which to grow, not just in the UK but elsewhere, as we build a pan-European specialty pharma business."
Apposite managing partner, Sam Gray, said: “Given its growth profile, the acquisition of Stirling Anglian represents an attractive first entry point into the UK market and we share the ambition of the team to create a significant pan-European business with a focus on innovative affordable medicines.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here