ProductLife Group accelerates expansion with acquisition of global regulatory outsourcing company ELC Group

ProductLife Group accelerates expansion with acquisition of global regulatory outsourcing company ELC Group

PLG extends footprint in India and Central Europe with new acquisition just two months after building U.S. capabilities with acquisition of Regulatory Drug Development consultancy DSI.

Paris, France – July 21^st, 2021

ProductLife Group (PLG) has continued to accelerate its growth as a global leader in end-to-end compliance services with the acquisition of ELC Group (ELC), a Czech Republic-based regulatory consulting firm with 150 employees.

The strategic merger with ELC comes two months after the acquisition of US-based regulatory drug development consultancy DSI and helps to further accelerate the execution of PLG’s strategic plan, BoOst 2023, which aims to make PLG the worldwide leader in regulatory affairs and compliance. With ELC, PLG not only adds a well-established, integrated delivery organization in India to support regulatory and vigilance outsourcing, it also expands its geographical reach in Central Europe, with the company’s offices in the Czech Republic and in Romania, expanding PLG’s nearshoring platforms for clients.

The combination of two of the largest global providers of regulatory and vigilance outsourcing services vastly expands the company’s reach as well as the level of support that can be offered to clients. The new group will now include more than 600 staff members located in 40 countries. PLG will continue to invest massively in its talent, opening up a host of opportunities for the employees at both entities.

Through its enhanced scale and broader services portfolio, the combined group will benefit from increased access to key decision-makers from the life sciences industry. This will give the new entity critical mass in the regulatory affairs and compliance market through the creation of worldwide centers of excellence in Regulatory Affairs, Regulatory Operations, CMC and Quality, Medical Information, as well as Vigilance.

“This is a landmark acquisition for PLG that complements our domain expertise and brings enhanced capabilities to our solutions, enabling us to provide sustainable business value to our clients. Adding offshore delivery capability in such a key location as India expands our ability to meet this goal,” commented Xavier Duburcq, PLG CEO.

“Together, the PLG and ELC teams offer an unmatched value proposition to address our clients’ regulatory compliance challenges. Now more than ever before, I trust we can offer our clients innovative solutions to support them in their industrialization and digital transformation journey,” Xavier added.

Commenting on the closing, Denis Gross, PLG’s Chief Operating Officer, stated: “We are thrilled with this acquisition, which will be all the more successful since we will strengthen the leadership team with key talent coming from ELC. We welcome ELC professionals into the PLG family, where they will be able to participate in the company’s new growth endeavors.”

Commenting on the merger with PLG, Fionna Tan, Head of Business Development at ELC, said: “Our market is evolving and consolidating at a high pace. More than ever, our clients are looking for partners with global reach and an ability to manage large end-to-end outsourcing programs spanning multiple continents. This is how you succeed in this market. In some services, expertise and competitive pricing are simply a given.”

Andreea Szentannai, Head of Project Management at ELC, said: “This is a great transaction that benefits all parties. Our customers require access to increasingly complex outsourcing solutions and this relationship will achieve a ‘best in class’, end-to-end outsourcing model that capitalizes on both companies’ expertise and geographical reach.”