Ashfield In2Focus

United Drug expands its contracts and marketing division with two UK acquisitions.

United Drug expands its contracts and marketing division with two UK acquisitions.

United Drug plc has acquired the entired issued share capital of Universal Conference and Incentive Travel ("Universal") and Business Edge Solutions and Training Limited ("BEST")

Both Universal and BEST will become part of Ashfield In2Focus and help us to further broaden our service offering. The two businesses combined employ 150 people, including senior management, all of whom will stay with the businesses.

Universal, based in Slough in Berkshire, provides event management services to pharmaceutical companies, both at the pre and post approval stages of product development. While head-quartered in the UK the company also has offices in the US and generates almost half of its revenue from the US by providing the same event management services to US pharmaceutical companies.

BEST is based in St. Albans in Hertfordshire and provides a range of personal, sales and team effectiveness training programmes for pharmaceutical companies in the UK market.

Speaking about the Company's acquisitions today, United Drug's Chief Executive, Liam Fitzgerald said:

"We're delighted to announce the acquisitions of Universal and BEST. These acquisitions allow us to further pursue our strategy of building a range of marketing related services around our core sales offering within Contract Sales & Marketing division and continue to benefit from the trend amongst pharmaceutical manufacturers to outsource non-core functions.

"I would like to welcome all management and staff of Universal and BEST to the United Drug organisation and look forward to working with them to build upon their success to date and to further our development as a leading international healthcare services company."

For further information:

www.universalcit.com

www.bestraining.co.uk