“Combination establishes a one-stop shop for efficient end-to-end solutions that facilitate chemical compound procurement
and management for highly specialized chemists”
September 7, 2022 – San Diego, CA and Newark, DE – eMolecules, Inc., provider of a leading chemistry search-and-fulfillment platform for early drug discovery research, today announced the acquisitions of Frontier Scientific Inc. (FSI) and Frontier Agricultural Sciences Inc. (FAS). Financial terms of the transactions were not disclosed.
FSI is a leading provider of chemical materials management and custom research services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, industrial chemical, government, and academic sectors, helping global organizations reduce time to market, internal costs and resource requirements. FAS is a top provider of research materials to the entomology research community, enabling accelerated development of agricultural chemistry products.
All FSI and FAS employees will join eMolecules and will continue to operate out of the companies’ main location in Newark, Delaware, USA.
“We are truly excited to welcome the FSI and FAS teams into the eMolecules family,” said Niko Gubernator, CEO and President of eMolecules. “Our shared dedication to providing outstanding customer service and delivering specialized solutions that simplify the lives of chemistry researchers were the primary drivers behind this combination. We have worked with Frontier for many years and have been impressed and enthused by the talent that will now be joining and complementing our growing team.”
“R&D departments are under enormous pressure to usher drug candidates through clinical development more quickly and at lower operational costs than ever before. This growing expectation, combined with unstable global supply chains, underscores the need for more robust, cost-efficient chemical supply and management solutions,” continues Niko. “FSI’s compound management, sample processing, and chemical analytical and procurement services perfectly complement eMolecules’ revolutionary specialty chemistry search-and-fulfillment offerings. The combined companies will offer a comprehensive suite of capabilities that will help our customers run more efficient R&D programs, even in times of uncertainty. Additionally, FAS’ support of leading agricultural research organizations will serve as an anchor for eMolecules to grow into this important adjacent market.”
“Today’s combining of FSI and FAS with eMolecules marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for our customers and employees,” said Bert Israelsen, co-owner and Executive Vice President of FSI and FAS. “As part of eMolecules, FSI and FAS will deliver more value to customers due to the expanded breadth and depth of offerings for specialty chemistry research that will be offered from one company. We are thrilled to embark on a new journey with eMolecules that will further transform drug discovery around the world.”
Sriram Venkataraman, Partner at Avista Capital Partners, said, “The transaction represents a key milestone in eMolecules’ growth strategy and in its journey to expand into additional markets and service offerings. The combination establishes a one-stop shop for efficient end-to-end solutions that facilitate chemical compound procurement and management for highly specialized chemists, and provides new entry points for eMolecules into the attractive agricultural chemistry market.”
About eMolecules Inc.
eMolecules was founded in 2005 with a vision to reduce drug discovery timelines through improved efficiencies in the compound search and acquisition process. This led to the creation of the industry’s most powerful, reliable and accurate digital chemical search engine directly connecting chemists to the world’s largest readily-available chemical space.
eMolecules specializes in unique structures with dependable delivery options coming from a trusted network of hundreds of suppliers, globally. With an extensive chemical database combined with industry-leading supply chain management, eMolecules delivers compounds quickly and reliably to chemists enabling the completion of more syntheses with more confidence and less time in the lab. eMolecules remains the primary global purchasing channel for chemical building blocks and screening compounds at 13 of the top 15 pharmaceutical companies.
Continued commitment to supporting drug discovery research has led to the expansion of eMolecules’ services to providing chemical intelligence data, specialty reagent procurement services and providing integrated eCommerce software for chemical building blocks, screening compounds, and primary antibody supply chains.
With nearly 60 employees globally, eMolecules is headquartered in San Diego, California, USA and has laboratory space and offices in California, and the United Kingdom. Avista Capital Partners, a private equity firm, became the primary investors of eMolecules in 2021.
About Frontier Scientific Inc.
The Sample Management Division of Frontier Scientific Inc. (FSI) was founded in 1988, with its primary business being the global distribution of commercial screening samples. This experience in sample reformatting and distribution evolved to a service providing outsourced material management of proprietary compound collections starting in 2002. Subsequent successes have led to the growth of this service, now supporting over 90 R&D organizations with total compounds under management exceeding 15 million in a variety of formats.
Since 1988, FSI has functioned as a specialty contract research organization (CRO) working to enable dramatic cost reductions by providing tailored outsourced capabilities to our customers. FSI is a chemical materials management and custom research services provider to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, industrial chemical, government, and academic sectors. FSI specializes in sample management, reformatting and distribution of screening compounds and building blocks for small molecule drug discovery, SAR studies, and lead optimization.
About Frontier Agricultural Sciences Inc.
Frontier Agricultural Sciences Inc. (FAS) is an industry leader in the provision of entomology research materials to the global entomology community. As the global population continues to grow, the need for sustainable food sources has put an emphasis on crop protection research across industry, academia, and non-profit research institutions. FAS prides itself in providing these researchers with a qualified partner to support their ongoing work through the supply of research products. Over the past 20 years, FAS has supported research initiatives from bench-top assays to large field campaigns.
About Avista Capital Partners
Founded in 2005, Avista Capital is a leading New York-based private equity firm with over $8 billion invested in more than 40 growth-oriented healthcare businesses globally. Avista partners with businesses that feature strong management teams, stable cash flows and robust growth prospects – investing in the medical devices and technologies, pharmaceuticals, outsourced pharmaceutical services, healthcare technology, healthcare distribution, and consumer-driven healthcare sectors. Avista helps its portfolio companies to accelerate growth through strategic acquisitions, having completed nearly 100 add-on acquisitions historically across its healthcare portfolio. Avista’s Operating Executives and Advisors are an integral part of the team, providing strategic insight, operational oversight and senior counsel, which helps drive growth and performance, while fostering sustainable businesses and creating long-term value for all stakeholders. For more information, visit www.avistacap.com.
FAQ’s
Who do I go to if I have questions about an existing FSI or FAS order/ project?
Please continue to contact your normal FSI or FAS customer services representative with any questions.
Who do I go to if I have questions about an existing eMolecules order/ project?
Please continue to contact your normal eMolecules customer services representative with any questions or contact order@emolecules.com
Will the terms of any existing sale agreements with eMolecules, FSI or FAS change?
There are no anticipated changes to existing agreements as a result of this transaction.
What’s happening to the other parts of Frontier?
Frontier Specialty Chemicals (FSC), Frontier Science Partnerships (FSP), and Echelon Biosciences (EBI) are not part of this transaction, so they will continue to operate business-as-usual under the current ownership.