Crescent Capital claims stake in clinical trials biz Walski
Crescent Capital Partners, the acquisitive Sydney-headquartered private equity firm is making another play in its favourite sector, this time diving into a local clinical trials business, Street Talk understands.
Sources said the healthcare-focused private equity firm had picked up a non-controlling take in Walski Clinical Research. The company, based in Macquarie Park, was founded just three years ago by Jeff Wall and Rhys Wisniewski. It operates a trials network of three on Australia’s east coast including Sydney’s Northern Beaches and the Sutherland Shire.
Clinical trial research is a growing industry in Australia. Bloomberg
Walski Clinical Research’s main business focuses on clinical trials across areas like vaccines, infectious diseases, cholesterol and obesity, delivering phase 1 to phase 4 trials, and it has been involved in testing vaccines developed to combat COVID-19 and the influenza virus.
The company claims to have done 40-plus studies with more than 1100 participants involved in trials. Key clients include NYSE-listed Thermo Fisher Scientific’s PPD, global pharma giants Novartis Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline and Novo Nordisk, and US biotechs Moderna and Novavax.
Michael Alscher’s Crescent Capital has been highly active in healthcare, making a motza in pathology, clinical research, primary care and allied health companies.
The firm has held a stake in Australia’s largest provider of phase-one clinical trials Nucleus Network, medical centres business Myhealth Medical Group and is the largest shareholder in ASX-listed pathology business Australian Clinical Labs, holding about 30 per cent of its shares after floating it in 2021.
Crescent sold Nucleus to global investment manager Blackstone in 2021 after
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