WELLESLEY, MA, November 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ampersand Capital Partners, a private equity firm specializing in growth equity investments in the healthcare sector, has announced an investment in Alliance Pharma (“Alliance”), a global leader in large and small molecule bioanalytical services. Headquartered in Malvern, PA., Alliance provides a full suite of discovery bioanalytical, DMPK, regulated bioanalysis, biomarker, LC-MS/MS, immunoassay, and cell and gene therapy assays. These capabilities support preclinical-through-Phase 4 studies run by a global customer base comprised of leading pharma and biotech companies.

Dave Patteson, Partner at Ampersand, stated "We are very excited to complete this investment in Alliance and partner with Founder and President Frank Li, who will remain a significant shareholder in the Company. Ampersand’s goal is to help Alliance execute an aggressive growth strategy that will expand the Company’s global reach, scientific capabilities, and operational capacity.”

Frank Li, President of Alliance, stated "We are delighted to have Ampersand invest in Alliance. Ampersand’s deep industry expertise, broad network, and capital resources will fortify Alliance Pharma’s position as a market-leading global specialty CRO."

About Alliance Pharma

Founded in 2008, Alliance is a contract research organization (CRO) that specializes in advanced bioanalytical research services for both small and large molecule drugs, as well as drug metabolism studies to support pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies’ drug discovery and development programs. Alliance Pharma provides: quantitative LC-MS/MS analysis of small molecule drugs, metabolites, biomarkers, protein, peptides and oligonucleotides, as well as immunoassay of proteins and antibody drug conjugates; immunogenicity assays (anti-drug antibody screening, confirmation, titer assessment, and Nab determination): cell-based bioassays; in vitro and in vivo drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic studies.

Alliance’s mission is to build a trusted partnership with our partners & clients to support their successful drug development programs. Alliance’s business philosophy is based on a foundation of trust, professional ethics, scientific excellence and regulatory compliance.


About Ampersand Capital Partners

Founded in 1988, Ampersand is a middle market private equity firm with more than $2 billion of assets under management dedicated to growth-oriented investments in the healthcare sector. With offices in Boston and Amsterdam, Ampersand leverages its unique blend of private equity and operating experience to build value and drive superior long-term performance alongside its portfolio company management teams. Ampersand has helped build numerous market-leading companies across each of the firm's core healthcare sectors. Additional information about Ampersand is available at ampersandcapital.com.

In 2016, Alliance Pharma had many notable achievements. One of the reasons that we continue to see growth year after year is the strong leadership of Dr. Feng (Frank) Li. For a second year in a row, Alliance Pharma was recognized with SmartCEO Future 50 award as Philadelphia region’s fastest growing mid-sized companies for 2017. From an increase in laboratory space and personnel to a host of new instruments, Alliance Pharma’s expansion facilitates an agile and adaptive environment to meet the specialty research needs of our clients—some of the world's best pharmaceutical companies.

By opening the laboratory animal facility in April 2016, Alliance began to offer in-life dosing studies and created three vivarium technician jobs. We also added critical research space for light-sensitive compounds. Nearby, a new temperature and humidity control unit upgraded our archive room storage capabilities. A few months ago, a crane arrived to deliver an AC unit for the new large-molecule mass spectrometry laboratory. In addition to space enhancements, we also added several new pieces of equipment.

Brand New Equipment Purchased in 2016

• Thermo Scientific Q Exactive Plus High-Resolution Mass Spectrometer
• Another Hamilton Robotics Automated Liquid Handling System
• Another Meso Sector Imager S600 Microplate Reader  
• Three additional High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) systems
• Five additional laboratory freezers
• Beckman Coulter AU480 Chemistry Analyzer

System Formalization

As part of our commitment to continuous improvement in service, we updated our quality manual and disaster recovery plan. 

A new software system was implemented to facilitate project management for each department. We also implemented a secure, digital sample management system to easily track data about storage and shipments. Laboratory operations has made improvements in the instrument inventory system, chemical and solvent inventory system, reagent inventory system, and HPLC column tracking system. Also, we have partnered with excellent providers to streamline our accounting and human resources systems.

Finally, a Training Coordinator was appointed to improve our on-boarding process for new employees and to identify areas for staff training and development. Since our company grew by over 50%, this was a much-needed organizational structure.

New Hire Spotlights

Our workforce grew to a total employee count of 63 in 2016. You can check out some of our staff announcements on our LinkedIn page. Our leadership team additions this year include Dr. Weiqing Chen, Dr. Wei Lu, and Dr. Colin Barry.

Notable Achievements in Social Media

On December 29th, we relaunched our site with Hubspot to deliver innovative and helpful content about the pharmaceutical research industry.

We gained our 100th Twitter follower on December 15. Thank you @ArcturusRX!

Eight team members worked together to create our first social media video, the #mannequinchallenge.

Over 1000 people saw our October 19 LinkedIn update.

Check us out on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or on our blog to read more about this year’s highlights. 

Future Direction

Our promise for 2017 is to continue to strengthen our specialties. We will continue to emphasize quality, compliance, and skill training. It is important for us to continue to improve our operational efficiency.  We plan to achieve new levels of productivity by further standardizing and harmonizing processes, and automating procedures, wherever possible. As always, we seek to deliver the highest quality data and in the most timely expectations. 

In 2014, Alliance Pharma was recognized as one of the 100 fastest growing private companies in Philadelphia by the Philadelphia Business Journal. 

FENG LI
CEO
ALLIANCE PHARMACEUTICALS
MALVERN

Years in business: 6

What made you start your business?
I got the idea a long time ago. I worked in same industry as I am now. I got intensive training. I appreciate the experience I got from that company. I was working very hard at learning and thinking about starting the business. By 2006, I began doing research on how to prepare for new business.

What did you do to survive the recession?
Alliance Pharmaceuticals was started in May 2008. We spent almost $1 million, however, only made about $28,000 with three key employees that year. We stuck with our initial business plan, focused on our expertise area, spent time to build up necessary functionalities and prepare for any potential business opportunities. All three employees deferred their pay for a year to ensure the business operation.

What has made your business successful?
We firmly adhere with our business philosophy including professional ethics, scientific excellence, regulatory compliance to win clients trust. We also have maximum business flexibility to understand our clients needs to meet and exceed their expectations.

What is the hardest part of your job?
The regulatory compliance to ensure the data quality and integrity and hiring the right employees.

What advice would you give someone starting their career or looking to start a business?
Have a dream, make a plan, prepare and execute it. You also must be confident enough to be persistent.

Would your advice be any different if you were addressing a minority?
There is no difference. The principle would be the same.

Excerpt from Philadelphia Business Journal