Stamford, CT, US: AmerisourceBergen, a drug wholesaler, is to buy World Courier Group, a privately held pharmaceutical transport and logistics provider, for $520m in cash.
AmerisourceBergen has only a small presence outside the United States. “This is our first truly international expansion,” says AmerisourceBergen chief executive Steven Collis. World Courier operates in 52 countries with only a third of its business done in the United States, Collis said.
World Courier handles shipping arrangements for medically sensitive products, especially in the clinical-trial stage. Increasingly, such trials, even those sponsored by US companies, occur overseas. World Courier president Wayne Heyland will remain with the company and report to Collis.
“We are very pleased to bring our global expertise and decades of experience serving international biopharmaceutical manufacturers and contract research organizations to AmerisourceBergen,” Heyland said in a statement.
