Lawrenceville contract manufacturing business sold to 2 private equity firms

Adare Pharmaceuticals, a Lawrenceville-based contract development and manufacturing organization, has been acquired by a pair of private equity firms from another one — and will be rebranded to focus on its CDMO capabilities.

Adare was sold to Boston-based Thomas H. Lee Partners L.P. and Seattle-based Frazier Healthcare Partners by San Francisco-based TPG Capital, which will retain the rights to Adare’s Eosinophilic Esophagitis product and spin it off into a separate entity. THL and Frazier will now own Adare’s CDMO, pharma technology and microbiome businesses.

Adare’s formal name will become Adare Pharma Solutions.

“Adare has a track record of leveraging its technologies to develop and manufacture value-add products for partners and patients,”CEO John Fraher said in a prepared statement. “Oral solid drug delivery is the largest drug class, and this new relationship with THL and Frazier will enable us to invest in and further grow our global capabilities as a specialty CDMO in the pharmaceutical and microbiome technology areas that have driven our growth to date.”

The TPG entity will be called Ellodi Pharmaceuticals. Adare’s global head of specialty pharma, Troy Hamilton, will become CEO of the new company.

“We have been privileged to partner with the Adare team for over a decade, and are equally excited to continue to invest in the development of APT-1011, with the launch of Ellodi Pharmaceuticals, whose leadership team have spearheaded the program,” Dr. John R. Schilling, a TPG partner, said in a statement.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

RBC Capital Markets was financial adviser to THL and Frazier, while Kirkland & Ellis was legal adviser. Debevoise & Plimpton was legal adviser to TPG and Adare.