April 16, 2018
Celerity Partners has sold Meridien Research (“Meridien”) to Avego Healthcare Capital.
Meridien, headquartered in Tampa, Florida, is a multi-specialty clinical research site company which conducts Phase I-IV inpatient and outpatient clinical trials for global, mid-sized pharmaceutical and biotech sponsors, as well as the largest contract research organizations (“CROs”). Meridien’s research covers more than 50 indications, with the range of therapeutic areas spanning central nervous system, mental health, neurology, metabolic and endocrine disorders and women’s health. Founded in 2000, Meridien operates six clinics located in St. Petersburg, Tampa, Maitland, Spring Hill, Bradenton and Lakeland, Florida.
During our ownership, we recruited a new CEO, who was previously a senior executive in 3 successful private equity-backed clinical research companies, a new CFO, and added Dr. Andrew Cutler, a top mental health specialist, as our Chief Medical Officer.
In 2016, and led by Celerity, Meridien completed the acquisition of Florida Clinical Research Centers. With this transaction, Meridien became a leader in CNS and mental health, a therapeutic area with more FDA approved drugs since 1950 than any other category. At the time of the sale, our customers included many of the largest global pharmaceutical sponsors, including Bayer, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi and Takeda, and six of the seven largest CROs globally, including Quintiles, Parexel, PPD, Covance and Medpace.