QHP Capital, a Raleigh-based private equity firm which manages the NovaQuest Private Equity family of funds, has backed Catalyst Clinical Research LLC, a contract research organization (CRO) providing clinical development support for oncology-focused biotechs, with a single asset continuation fund, Catalyst SPV.
QHP originally invested in Catalyst in October 2018 through NovaQuest Private Equity Fund I LP. As part of a buy-and-build strategy, QHP and Catalyst have made four add-on acquistions, creating an oncology-focused CRO (Catalyst Oncology).
“We are excited they chose to partner with QHP again and are confident in this team’s ability to execute on their objectives of building the leading, global oncology CRO,” says Vern Davenport and Jeff Edwards, partners at QHP.
Ropes & Gray acted as legal advisor to QHP and Smith Anderson acted a legal advisor to Catalyst. Debt financing for the transaction was provided by MidCap Financial and Apogem Capital.