25. January 2024

ARQIS has advised the previous shareholders of Pneumologisches Forschungsinstitut an der LungenClinic Grosshansdorf GmbH (PRI) and KLB Gesundheitsforschung Lübeck GmbH (KLB) on the sale of their shares in the institutes to Velocity Clinical Research.

Since its foundation 25 years ago, the PRI has conducted over 300 studies and is one of Europe's leading institutes in clinical research on bronchial asthma, COPD, bronchiectasis and pulmonary fibrosis. Dr. Anne-Marie Kirsten and Dr. Henrik Watz both continue to work at Velocity as Principal Investigator and Head of Clinical Trials respectively.

The KLB is located in the heart of the city of Lübeck and has been conducting clinical trials on respiratory diseases since 2008. It is dedicated to researching new active principles and diagnostic procedures in the treatment of chronic obstructive airway diseases such as bronchial asthma or smoker's lung/COPD. Dr. Andrea Ludwig-Sengpiel will also continue to work for Velocity in a leading role at the institute.

Velocity is the leading integrated network of clinical trial sites. With nearly 100 clinical trial sites and more than 220 researchers, Velocity works with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to discover new drugs, medical devices, diagnostics and combination products that could improve people's health and well-being. Velocity offers unified solutions for research sites to efficiently find the right patients, investigators and research collaborators for clinical trials in the U.S. and Europe.

Both the PRI and the KLB are independent entities. They have been sold together.

The ARQIS team, led by Dr. Jörn-Christian Schulze, won the mandate through a pitch. The pitch was managed by the financial advisor WMCF Advisory. The WMCF team consisted of Ulf Boenicke (Managing Partner), Pascal Florczak (Director), Alexej Koslov (Senior Associate) and Nicolas Emig (Analyst). Both firms are deeply rooted in the healthcare sector and have worked together on numerous other transactions, most recently on the sale of m.doc GmbH to CompuGroup Medical AG.

Advisors to PRI and KLB

ARQIS (Dusseldorf): Dr. Jörn-Christian Schulze (Lead), Dr. Maximilian Backhaus, Laura Ally Rizzi (all Transactions); Counsel: Jens Knipping (Tax), Anja Mehrtens (Employment); Associates: Jasmin Grünen (Transactions), Anna Munsch (Employment); Legal Specialists: Qing Xia (Transactions)