Zeewolde, the Netherlands – Ace Pharmaceuticals (Ace), a specialized pharmaceutical company in medical need medicines, strengthens its shareholders base with the addition of Gilde Buy Out Partners and Gilde Healthcare.
Founded in 1990 and based in Zeewolde, Ace focuses on the development, production and distribution of licensed and unlicensed niche medicines. With its activities, Ace meets an essential social need and ensures that medical need products remain available at a fair price for patients for whom no substitute is available (including through national named-patient programs). As of January 2020, Ace also supplies (custom) pharmaceutical compounded products through its subsidiaries Ace Compounding and Ace Apotheek (registered pharmacy in the Netherlands). The strong growth in recent years has led to the construction of a new state-of-the-art GMP certified production facility located at the site of the head office in Zeewolde, currently employing over 150 people.
Attracting this new investor base represents an important step in realizing Ace’s ambition to further strengthen its position as an independent Dutch pharmaceutical company. With this position, Ace addresses a number of important trends in the pharmaceutical healthcare sector.
Jan Verwaal, Director of Ace, says: “To ensure the availability of crucial raw materials and medicines for the Netherlands and Europe, parts of the supply chain are restored closer to home again, independently of (distant) foreign countries. In addition, we can respond to the importance of ‘drug-rediscovery’ to help reduce the increasing drug shortages.”
Jan Willem Popma, Director of Ace, added: “The Covid-19 pandemic has clearly demonstrated the challenges and gaps in our sector for European countries. It makes our mission to produce and keep scarce medicines available more relevant than ever. We want to respond even stronger to these challenges by growing our presence in Europe both autonomously and through acquisitions. With the capital, know-how and the broad (international) network of Gilde Buy Out Partners, Gilde Healthcare, and our existing investor Quadrum Capital, we can do so in a socially responsible and financially sound manner.”
About Gilde Healthcare
Gilde Healthcare is a specialized healthcare investor managing over €1.4 billion across two fund strategies: Private Equity and Venture & Growth. Gilde Healthcare Private Equity participates in profitable European lower mid-market healthcare companies with a prime focus on the Benelux and DACH region. The Private Equity fund targets healthcare providers, suppliers of medical products and service providers in the healthcare market. Gilde Healthcare Venture & Growth invests in medtech, healthtech and therapeutics in Europe and North America. www.gildehealthcare.com
