Therakos acquired by CVC

CVC Capital Partners completed the acquisition of Therakos from Mallinckrodt on 1 November 2024, for $925m in cash, investing through its ninth fund. Michael Rechtiene and Sandra Thompson, who had previously run the business, returned as joint chief executives having worked with the acquirer throughout the process. Therakos manufactures and supplies the systems through which extracorporeal photopheresis is administered, a treatment in which a patient’s blood is drawn, the white cells separated, exposed to a light-sensitive compound and to ultraviolet light, then returned to the body, where they modify the immune response. Hospitals use it for graft-versus-host disease following bone marrow transplantation, for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma and for organ rejection, and the systems hold approvals in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia, South Korea and Latin America. Revenue follows the treatment rather than the instrument, since each session consumes a single-use kit, and a transplant centre that has qualified the system, trained its staff and established its protocols continues to order those kits for as long as it treats patients, which gives the business the recurring character of a consumables supplier rather than that of a capital equipment manufacturer. Separating it from its parent required simultaneous share and asset transfers across eleven jurisdictions, covering contracts, equipment, inventory, employees, premises and the transfer of regulatory authorisations, each of which had to be reissued in the name of the new owner before the systems could continue to be sold. Mallinckrodt had emerged from a second bankruptcy in 2023, following settlements over its opioid products, and sold the business to reduce debt, having developed it alongside pharmaceutical activities with which it had little in common. UBS advised CVC, with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer as legal counsel, PwC on financial and Candesic on commercial due diligence, while A&O Shearman advised Mallinckrodt on the international aspects of the separation.

The acquisition of Therakos is part of the growth strategy of CVC, which already has several external growth operations under its belt, notably Adam Ecotech in 2024.