InfoRLife has secured a strategic investment from BC Partners to accelerate the expansion of its ready-to-use intravenous infusion bag development and manufacturing platform. Under the agreement, BC Partners will acquire a co-control stake from founder and CEO Sergio Dusci and the founding families of ACS Dobfar, which will remain involved in the business. Financial terms were not disclosed.
A co-control investment generally gives two or more shareholders shared authority over major corporate decisions rather than placing the business under the sole control of one owner. The partnership will combine InfoRLife’s pharmaceutical development and manufacturing capabilities with the sector expertise, capital and international network of BC Partners and the continued involvement of ACS Dobfar.
Founded in 2002 as a division of ACS Dobfar, InfoRLife is headquartered in Switzerland and operates three sites across Switzerland, Romania and Tunisia. The company describes itself as the only pure-play business-to-business dossier developer and contract development and manufacturing organization specializing in ready-to-use IV infusion bags.
Ready-to-use IV infusion bags contain medicines that have been prepared in advance at the appropriate concentration and can be administered without requiring hospital staff to compound or dilute the drug immediately before use. These products can simplify clinical workflows, reduce preparation time and help lower the risk of medication errors or contamination associated with manual preparation.
InfoRLife provides end-to-end capabilities spanning pharmaceutical development, manufacturing and out-licensing. Its operations support customers from the initial development of a formulation and regulatory dossier through commercial production and the licensing of finished products to pharmaceutical companies serving different markets.
A pharmaceutical dossier contains the technical, clinical, manufacturing and quality information required to seek regulatory approval for a medicine. Developing these files can require extensive formulation work, stability testing, manufacturing validation and documentation demonstrating that the product consistently meets regulatory and safety requirements.
As a contract development and manufacturing organization, InfoRLife can also produce medicines on behalf of pharmaceutical customers that do not want to build their own specialized manufacturing infrastructure. This model allows drug companies to access development expertise and production capacity while concentrating their internal resources on commercialization, distribution and other parts of the value chain.
Demand for ready-to-use IV products is increasing as hospitals seek safer and more efficient methods for administering injectable medicines. Preparing drugs manually within a hospital can require trained staff, specialized sterile facilities and careful calculations, while pre-prepared infusion bags can reduce the number of steps required before treatment reaches the patient.
The products may also help healthcare providers manage staffing constraints and standardize the preparation of frequently administered medicines. However, manufacturing ready-to-use infusion products requires strict controls involving sterility, drug stability, container compatibility and the accurate concentration of each medicine.
BC Partners and ACS Dobfar plan to support InfoRLife’s next stage of development through increased investment in research and development, an expanded product pipeline and improvements to manufacturing and operational processes. The shareholders also intend to evaluate acquisitions that could add products, technologies, manufacturing capacity or geographic reach.
Expanding the product pipeline could allow InfoRLife to address additional therapeutic categories and provide pharmaceutical companies with a wider range of ready-to-use infusion products. The company’s focus on complex medicines may also create opportunities in areas where development, manufacturing and regulatory requirements limit the number of competing suppliers.
The transaction represents the second investment by BC Partners Fund XII, following its acquisition of Fortidia, an asset-light fulfillment and logistics company. The fund is continuing the firm’s sector-focused strategy of investing in defensive growth businesses within the mid-market.
Defensive growth companies generally provide products or services supported by durable demand while also offering opportunities for expansion. Healthcare manufacturing can display these characteristics because demand is tied to patient care and medication use, although individual businesses remain exposed to regulatory, operational and competitive risks.
BC Partners manages approximately €35 billion across private equity and private debt strategies. Established in 1986, the firm has completed more than 130 private equity investments and focuses on technology, media and telecommunications, healthcare, services and industrials, and food businesses.
The InfoRLife investment also builds on BC Partners’ experience in generic pharmaceuticals. Generic drug businesses develop and manufacture alternatives to branded medicines after applicable exclusivity periods expire, while ready-to-use infusion products may require additional formulation, packaging and manufacturing expertise beyond producing a standard generic medicine.
The investment firm plans to apply its experience in research and development, operational improvement and pharmaceutical sector expansion while working with InfoRLife’s existing management team and ACS Dobfar. The objective is to establish a broader platform capable of serving increasing demand for ready-to-use injectable products across multiple markets.
Latham & Watkins, Studio Legale Tributario Facchini Rossi Michelutti, PwC, Bär & Karrer, Jefferies and Rothschild advised BC Partners on the transaction. Alira Health and LCA advised ACS Dobfar.
KEY QUOTES:
“Our investment in InfoRLife builds on BC Partners’ strong track record in the generics space. We see a compelling opportunity to create a leading platform by applying the value creation playbooks we have developed through years of partnering with best-in-class companies in the sector, with a strong focus on R&D and operational excellence.”
Matt Evans, Partner at BC Partners
“We are delighted to partner with ACS and the broader InfoRLife team as the company embarks on its next phase of growth. InfoRLife is a true hidden gem, a market-leading business in an attractive sector benefiting from strong secular growth trends, focused on complex therapeutic areas and products that deliver meaningful value to customers.”
“Our investment reflects BC Partners’ long-standing approach of partnering directly with families and founders, bringing the sector expertise, international network, and operational toolkit needed to build leading businesses.”
Marco Castelli, Partner at BC Partners
