Ridgemont Equity Partners (“Ridgemont”), a middle market buyout and growth equity firm, today announced the closing of a majority investment in partnership with management in Gallus Biopharmaceuticals, LLC (“Gallus” or the “Company”), a premier biologics contract manufacturing organization based in St. Louis, MO. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Gallus is a contract manufacturer of clinical and commercial-grade bulk biologics products. The investment from Ridgemont facilitated Gallus’ acquisition of an existing FDA-approved, commercially-certified biologics manufacturing plant from Centocor Biologics, LLC. The plant currently manufactures two of Centocor Biologics’ leading products, Remicade and Stelara, which are distributed globally. Ridgemont’s investment will also be used to expand the facility’s manufacturing capabilities, including building a clinical services suite and expanding the existing development lab.
Gallus is led by President and CEO Mark Bamforth, a former executive with Genzyme Corp., along with an experienced team of senior executives including Shelly Adams, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Steven Kasok, Chief Financial Officer and Mark Bell, Vice President of Site Operations.
“We are delighted to partner with the Ridgemont team,” said Mark Bamforth, President and CEO of Gallus. “Ridgemont’s experience in healthcare was particularly attractive to us as we sought the best investor to help us execute our growth strategies and achieve our goal of becoming a leading biologics contract manufacturing partner providing innovative, flexible manufacturing solutions to biopharmaceutical companies.”
“We are extremely pleased to form a partnership with Mark Bamforth and his senior leadership team,” said Jack Purcell, a Principal at Ridgemont who will join the Gallus Board of Directors. “We see a tremendous market opportunity in the biologics contract manufacturing space and believe the facility we’ve acquired is well-positioned to meet the current and future market needs of our customers.”
“The Ridgemont team has a nearly two decade-long history of successfully investing in healthcare and industrials transactions, and we expect that experience to be particularly relevant in helping Gallus grow over the life of our investment in the Company,” said Walker Poole, a Partner at Ridgemont, who will also join the Gallus Board of Directors. “We plan to build upon our past success with a contract manufacturer of pharmaceutical products, which was a very successful investment for our firm.”
Doug Bauche, President of St. Charles region at Enterprise Bank & Trust said “Enterprise is very pleased to partner with Gallus and Ridgemont in providing the senior financing necessary to complete the acquisition of the Centocor facility. The investment being made by Gallus and Ridgemont here in St. Louis is significant in many respects. The retention of jobs and investment in additional plant and equipment makes this a big win for our community.”
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon visited the Gallus facility on Wednesday, May 18 to participate in an official ribbon-cutting ceremony.