London, UK – Global Healthcare Opportunities, or GHO Capital Partners LLP, the European specialist investor in healthcare, announces its investment to partner with the founding management team in FairJourney Biologics (‘FairJourney’), a leader in providing antibody discovery services to global biopharma.
Established in 2012 in Porto, Portugal, FairJourney provides outsourced antibody discovery, engineering, production and characterisation services to deliver a critical step in the biologics drug discovery value chain for small and mid-sized biopharma. An extensive track record in over 460 antibody discovery projects delivered with a best-in-class 99%+ success rate have underpinned a topline growth CAGR in excess of 30% in recent years with the Company currently serving over 70 customers globally.
Led by its founders, Antonio Parada and Maria Gonzalez-Pajuelo, FairJourney has established a market leading reputation for quality, reliability and service delivery flexibility. From state-of-the-art facilities, the Company operates a science led and customer focused business model, delivered by a uniquely technically skilled workforce – over 90% of employees are PhD or MSc qualified.
FairJourney serves a high growth end market, estimated to be expanding at c. 15% p.a. and driven by multiple macro tailwinds including i) consistent growth in global pharma R&D expenditure, ii) the increasing share and importance of biologics in the R&D pipeline and iii) the trend towards outsourcing across the biopharmaceutical industry. Biologics currently represent an estimated 40% and growing share of the total pharmaceutical molecule pipeline with FairJourney providing services to the fastest growing subcategories.
In partnership with founding management, GHO will provide further capital, sector expertise and international network to build on FairJourney’s unique market position and create a scaled global leader in outsourced biologics discovery and development services. The Company will look to expand its footprint, capacity and service capabilities through both organic and inorganic opportunities to accelerate and deliver the next stage of growth.