April 11, 2012 - RMIT University and vivoPharm today jointly announced the sale of RMIT Drug Discovery Technologies Pty Ltd (RDDT) to vivoPharm Pty Ltd. As a result of the share based transaction RMIT will become a 20% shareholder in vivoPharm.
RDDT is a Good Laboratory Practice (GLP)-compliant pre-clinical toxicology testing company founded and owned by RMIT. RDDT’s operations will continue at the RMIT Bundoora campus, which will become vivoPharm’s Australian headquarters.
vivoPharm is an oncology-focused, GLP-compliant provider of integrated preclinical pharmacology services. Founded in Adelaide in 2003, it recently established US operations in Hershey, Pennsylvania and has a sales and marketing office in Munich, Germany to service European customers. The addition of RDDT allows vivoPharm to expand its suite of toxicology testing services and make them available to its international as well as Australian customers. RDDT also brings a vast network of existing contacts and a strong client base.
RMIT, with support from the Victorian Government, established RDDT as a premier provider of toxicology services in Australia in 2004. Recently RMIT initiated an investigation, through independent adviser Bob Atwill, reviewing strategic options to take the business into international markets, and resulting in the identification of vivoPharm as a strong partner with suitable administration, infrastructure and international marketing activities.
“After six years of development, RDDT is ready to move to the next level of preclinical toxicology safety testing,” Derek Young, Chairman of RDDT, said. “We did exactly what we set out to accomplish – we developed a business that has caught the attention of an established, Australian based but internationally focused company.”
“The addition of RDDT will bring significant growth to vivoPharm,” Dr Ian Nisbet, newly appointed Chairman of vivoPharm and a key driver for the RDDT transaction, said. “Not only will we derive value from RDDT’s established business but relocating the company’s headquarters to Melbourne, with the largest concentration of biotechnology companies in Australia, places the company close to many of its existing and potential Australian customers.”
vivoPharm founder, CEO and Managing Director, Dr Ralf Brandt, added “vivoPharm and RDDT are very complementary companies and the combination of the two is a further step in building vivoPharm as a strong Australian pre-clinical CRO business serving international clients”.