RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. - August 24, 1998 - Quintiles Transnational Corp. (Nasdaq: QTRN) announced today the acquisition of The Royce Consultancy plc, the U.K.'s leading privately held pharmaceutical sales representative recruitment and contract sales organization (CSO).
The addition of Royce to Quintiles' product commercialization service group, Innovex, strengthens Innovex's capabilities to rapidly recruit and deploy contract sales pharmaceutical representatives for its U.K. customers. It also adds a new service, direct recruitment of representatives into customers' sales forces, to the Innovex service group's offerings.
Quintiles acquired Royce in exchange for Quintiles stock in a pooling of interests transaction that is expected to be neutral to slightly accretive to Quintiles' earnings per share.
"Royce's market leadership in direct recruitment, its strong customer relationships and its growth as a CSO make it a superb addition to Innovex U.K.," said David White, Innovex CEO. "Royce's particular strengths in recruitment and deployment of experienced representatives further enhance our ability to meet our joint customers' needs and help them accelerate their commercial success."
With about $10 billion a year in annual sales, the U.K. is the world's sixth-largest pharmaceutical market. Royce, which is based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and has 210 employees, will continue to operate under the Royce name. Quintiles has entered into employment agreements with Managing Director Jerry Meek, Recruitment Director Ian Hogan, Commercial Director Graeme
McFarlane and other Royce senior managers. Keith Bushnell, Managing Director of Innovex U.K, has been appointed to the Royce Board.
"We are very pleased to join the Quintiles family of companies in the Innovex service group, a combination that will benefit our customers through expanded service offerings and greater depth of resources and expertise," Meek said. "As demand for contract sales grows in the U.K., the proven ability to rapidly recruit high-caliber sales representatives and integrate them into strategically important sales programs will be a crucial success factor for our customers."
Royce's main office is at 10 Coates Crescent, West End, Edinburgh EH3 7AL. Telephone: +44 131 226 6419. Fax: +44 131 220 0007. In addition, Royce has a network of offices throughout the U.K. to facilitate rapid recruitment and maintain close customer relationships.
Innovex is the world's largest supplier of contract sales and marketing services to the pharmaceutical industry, with service capabilities in 21 countries on five continents.
Quintiles Transnational Corp. is the market leader in providing full-service contract research, sales and marketing, healthcare policy consulting and health information management services to the worldwide pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and healthcare industries. Quintiles is headquartered near Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. With 13,000 employees worldwide and offices in 28 countries, Quintiles operates through specialized work groups dedicated to meeting individual customer needs.
Information in this press release contains "forward-looking statements." These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including without limitation, the ability of the combined businesses to be integrated with Quintiles' current operations, actual operating performance, the ability to maintain large client contracts or to enter into new contracts, and the actual costs combining the businesses. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are discussed in the company's recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to its S-3 and S-4 Registration Statements, its Annual Report on Form 10-K, its Form 8-Ks, and its other periodic reports, including Form 10-Q, exhibit 99.01.