Clinical research company Ecron Acunova has acquired 75 per cent stake in the oldest Scandinavian CRO, aCROnordic, for around Rs 15 crore, Ecron's Founder Chairman, Mr D.A. Prasanna, said.

The 40-member aCROnordic was founded 40 years ago near Copenhagen and was Acunova's partner in that region; it now added a Scandinavian footprint to the Bangalore CRO, Mr Prasanna told Business Line . This is its third acquisition in as many years.

Denmark had a predominantly aging population of 5.5 million — less than Bangalore's, for example — but the R&D start-ups there together undertook 10 per cent more clinical trials than was done in India.

“Drug companies find it easy to do trials there, they also want CROs like Ecron to have global presence and cover important regions like Scandinavia ourselves. ACROnordic is also present in Sweden and Finland and we get to do trials in those countries,” he said.

On the opportunities for Acunova, Mr Prasanna said in Denmark, home to insulin major Novo Nordisk, many companies worked on diabetes research and preferred to have their clinical trials done in that country. “We can now offer them trials in Denmark as well as in India,” known as diabetes capital. The Danish CRO, which specialises in oncology, neurology and cardiology, made turnover equivalent to around Rs 30 crore last year, he said.

While Indian CROs have been serving large drug research companies, smaller European ones such as aCROnordic, he said, knew how to work with small biotech companies that were discovering new drugs; 70 per cent of revenue came from servicing smaller companies.

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