Concept Life Sciences (CLS) is a leading UK-based contract research organisation (CRO) providing research and development services to global pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients, ranging from virtual biotechs to blue-chips.

As Limerston’s 4th investment within the Life Science space, we recognised CLS as having strong expertise across the drug discovery and development space within Europe, as well as a deeply invested asset base across five UK state-of-the-art site locations.

Boasting over 30 years of experience and a PhD-rich workforce of around 300 scientists, Limerston views CLS as being well positioned to benefit from market growth in the CRO sector, especially within the high-growth therapeutic areas of immunology, oncology, and inflammation, where CLS has developed world-class capabilities.

As a carveout from Spectris plc, CLS’s highly recurring revenues are achieved through a strong breadth of services ranging from drug discovery and early development, through to API manufacturing at multi kilogram scale under good manufacturing practice (GMP). We aim to accelerate their capabilities expansion to a full suite of end-to-end discovery and development services through further investment in scientific leadership and a specialism focussed buy-and-build strategy.

Limerston had been tracking the development of CLS ever since its acquisition from Spectris plc back in 2018 and see a rare opportunity for significant EBITDA growth through a combination of targeted sales initiatives and operational effectiveness enabling the business to realise its significant latent growth potential.