Life Science Practice

Edgewater’s Life Science Practice is focused on companies that create value by providing critical products or services towards the development or manufacture of pharmaceuticals, biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics and medical devices. The dynamic and rapidly growing target verticals are focused on companies providing pharmaceutical fine chemicals, pharmaceutical services (CRO, CDMO, CMO, and niche specialist players), and companies offering differentiated reagents, materials, and technologies to the pharma industry.

Overview

View our Pharma Chemicals teaser

Media

CPHI Annual Report 2022

Target Industries, End Markets, or Applications

Pharma Chemicals

Chemical intermediates

Regulatory starting materials

Active pharmaceutical ingredients

Differentiated capabilities

Batch or continuous processing capabilities

Pharma Services Organizations

CRO, CDMO, CMO

Small molecules/large molecules (proteins/antibodies; gene/cell therapy)

Niche companies in Drug Development or CMC-focused

Active ingredients, pre-formulation, formulation, packaging

Analytical/assay development services, Bioanalytical

Discovery, pre-clinical, clinical, commercial

Reagents, Materials and Technologies

Chemical or biological reagents for research, diagnostics, or commercial use

Enabling technologies (i.e., enzymes, catalysts, biologic processes)

Functional materials (e.g., functional excipients, adjuvants)

Diagnostics

Practice Leader: Brian Scanlan

Practice Leader:
Brian Scanlan

bscanlan@edgewatercapital.com
Office: (216) 292-3838

Brian leads Edgewater’s Life Science practice and is engaged with several portfolio companies in advisory roles spanning commercial, operational, and Board advisory. Brian has spent nearly three decades in the pharmaceutical services sector, developing and growing companies offering highly differentiated technologies and services. He is also the Founder and Managing Partner of Freedom Bioscience Partners, a consultancy firm focused on M&A and strategic business advisory to the pharmaceutical and fine chemical industries. Prior to launching Freedom, Brian served as CEO at Cambridge Major Laboratories, a global pharma contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) focused on active pharmaceutical ingredients, solid state chemistry, and analytical services.

Brian holds a BS in Chemistry from Northern Illinois University and an MBA from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Executive Advisor: Kirt Poss

Executive Advisor:
Kirt Poss

kposs@edgewatercapital.com

Kirt Poss is an Executive Partner with Edgewater Capital Partners focused in the Life Science space. Mr. Poss brings more than 25 years of executive healthcare leadership and business growth through M&A to Edgewater. Most recently, he served as CEO-US of ProtaGene, a leading provider of advanced analytics in biopharmaceutical and gene therapy platform development, which was acquired by private equity in 2021. Previously, he founded and served as President and CEO of BioAnalytix, where he led the company from early commercial growth through M&A with Protagen Protein Services in 2019. Before founding BioAnalytix, Mr. Poss co-founded, ran and grew the biomarker imaging company VisEn Medical as President and CEO from early product development through worldwide commercialization and M&A with PerkinElmer in 2010.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Poss worked in healthcare business strategy consulting with Kendall Strategies in Cambridge, MA, where he focused in the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors. Before that he worked in scientific research at the Center for Molecular Imaging Research at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He is a co-author of several scientific publications and multiple patents in biomarker imaging and pharmaceutical development.