Kester Capital’s Evestia Clinical acquires Atlantic Research Group
Kester Capital‘s Evestia Clinical has acquired Atlantic Research Group (ARG), a US-based clinical research organisation (CRO). Based in Charlottesville, Virginia, ARG has provided its clients with a wide range of clinical trial services, spanning several complex therapeutic areas for over 20 years, and has a long-standing reputation for outstanding quality of service provision.
The acquisition will expand Evestia’s US footprint, a key step in the business’s strategy to create a global, specialist CRO focused on providing pharmaceutical and biotech customers with a full suite of clinical trial services across the drug development life cycle. ARG’s expertise in neurology adds to Evestia’s specialisms in oncology and rare diseases trials. The enlarged group will operate from Letchworth (UK), New Jersey (US) and Virginia (US), and employ ~150 staff.
Evestia Clinical, formerly known as EMAS Pharma, was acquired by Kester and an experienced executive team (including Richard Barfield (Chair), Lewis Cameron (CEO), Roy Ovel (CCO), and Carl Hvass (CFO)) in December 2024. Evestia’s executive team has an exceptional track record of building leading CROs with a reputation for operational excellence, including at Chiltern International, a top 10 global CRO that was acquired by Labcorp in 2017 and a former Kester portfolio company.
Following the acquisition of ARG, the combined group will continue to be led by the Evestia executive team, who will be joined by Paul Bishop (ARG CEO and co-founder) and Lyle Camblos (ARG President and co-founder).
PMSI provided customer referencing to support the acquisition.