In a move to provide greater global reach for pharmaceutical customers and greater capabilities in the U.S. market, one of the world's leading Contract Research Organizations (CRO), Lambda Therapeutic Research, has reached an agreement to acquire Novum Pharmaceutical Research Services, a leading CRO in the U.S., in a private transaction.

Terms were not disclosed. Novum has numerous global clients served throughout its U.S. operations with facilities in Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, Fargo & Houston. It will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lambda. Lambda, headquartered in India, has operations in India, Canada, Poland and the United Kingdom.

Commenting about the acquisition of Novum, Mrs. Bindi Chudgar, Managing Director of Lambda, said, "This is our second footprint in North America following our acquisition of the R&D facilities of Biovail CRO in 2010 in Canada. Novum is a strategic fit for Lambda as it provides a natural platform for growth in the United States, the world's largest pharmaceutical market. Novum brings with it a strong technical and management team. We expect this acquisition to blend with and strengthen our existing capabilities as we extend our global reach in serving clients in this evolving market."

"Combining with Lambda creates an opportunity for Novum and our clients to have a broader capability across a global footprint to accommodate the growing needs of our client base," said Christopher H. Chamberlain, Chief Executive Officer of Novum. "We are excited to become part of a respected global organization that wants to grow its presence in the United States."

Lambda's President of Global Operations Dr. Tausif Monif said, "Our collective client base will benefit from this unique combination of companies with complimentary skills sets, a stellar track record of performance, and exceptional quality in scientific technology capabilities for complex drug product development and clinical trials. This will add greater value for our respective global clients' drug development programs and greater efficiencies for our combined operations."

Lambda's Executive Director & Global Head-Business Development Dr. Mrinal Kammili said, "This combined entity provides us with an opportunity to scale up our operations and creates one of the largest and most comprehensive offering of on-demand and on-premise solutions to our global clients. We are confident that this acquisition will result in a stronger entity with multiple synergies to fuel our future growth."

Between the two companies, most of the top organizations in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries are served as clients. BlackArch Partners served as exclusive financial advisor to Lambda Therapeutic Research on this transaction while EY and KPMG LLC were accounting and tax advisors, respectively. Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton LLP were the legal advisors to Lambda. Cohen & Grigsby, P.C. in Pittsburgh, PA were the legal advisors to Novum.