Pharma services are in demand; Somerset-based Sannova acquired by SFW Capital Partners

Sannova, a Somerset-based service provider to the pharmaceutical, biotech, and clinical partners across the globe, on Wednesday announced it was acquired by SFW Capital Partners, a specialized private equity firm of Rye, New York.

Sannova’s founders and existing owners, including the Marepalli family, Dr. Venkat Reddy, Malleswar Kollu, and Geeta Vidiyala will be reinvesting alongside SFW to retain an equity stake in the business.

Officials at SFW said that Sannova is well positioned to take advantage of major industry trends, particularly the increasing tendency of biopharmaceutical companies to outsource critical activities to specialized CROs that can deliver high-quality services with great efficiency.

“With SFW’s strategic support, Sannova is well positioned to enter a new chapter of growth and our team is highly motivated to put our new resources to work,” Aashritha Marepalli, head of Business Development at Sannova stated. “We can invest in our people and processes to expand our services and capacity to meet growing market demand and the evolving needs of our customers.”

“With its deep sector expertise and experience partnering with founder-owned businesses, SFW is the ideal partner for Sannova at this stage of our growth as we look to capitalize on the significant market opportunity presented by growth in drug discovery and development across various molecule types, therapies, and delivery methodologies,” said Dr. Venkat Reddy, president and co-founder of Sannova.

Terms of the private transaction were not disclosed, however, as part of the transaction, SFW Operating Advisor Michael Silvon will join Sannova’s Board of Directors as Executive Chairman.