Inflexion announces investment into Upperton

21st April 2022 - Press Release

Inflexion is pleased to announce it has made a substantial investment into Upperton Pharma Solutions (“Upperton”), a UK-based specialist contract development and manufacturing organisation (“CDMO”) which has expertise in particle engineering for the pharmaceutical industry. Inflexion has invested alongside the founder and the management team who will continue to lead the business. The investment is being made from Inflexion Enterprise Fund V.

Nottingham-based Upperton was founded in 1999 and conducts formulation and analytical development and clinical trial manufacturing services for small to mid sized pharma clients. Upperton uses its expertise to develop a wide range of finished dosage formats for their clients (typically during early phase clinical trials), with this often making the difference between success and failure for the pharma company. Alongside dosage form development, Upperton also specialises in spray drying, a particle engineering technology which can be used to ensure targeted delivery of drugs to the lungs and nasal cavity or to provide solutions to pharma clients who have challenges with poorly soluble molecules.

As part of the investment, Inflexion will support Upperton in expanding its scale and capabilities, commencing with the build of a new, larger manufacturing facility which will allow Upperton to extend its services to support later stages of clinical trials and commercial manufacturing.

Simon Turner, Managing Partner at Inflexion, commented, “Upperton is serving a real need of the pharma industry and the strength of its expertise and service offering have made it a clear leader within its niche. We look forward to working with the experienced and highly motivated management team to drive the opportunity further.”

Richard Johnson, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Upperton, added “We are immensely proud of the Upperton journey and to have had the opportunity to be part of our customer’ development programmes over the past 20 years. The investment from Inflexion allows us to expedite the capability and capacity expansion required to support our clients further in their clinical development. We are really looking forward to the next Upperton chapter and are delighted to be moving forward in partnership with Inflexion.” 

For further information, please contact:

Sarah Gestetner

020 7487 9820

sarah.gestetner@inflexion.com

About Inflexion

Inflexion is a leading mid-market private equity firm which works in partnership with ambitious management teams of high growth, entrepreneurial businesses to accelerate sustainable growth. Inflexion’s flexible approach allows it to back both majority and minority investments, typically investing £10m to £400m of equity in each deal.

With bespoke teams and dedicated capital, Inflexion’s funds invest across a variety of sectors from offices in London, Manchester and Amsterdam. Inflexion helps businesses achieve the next stage of growth through M&A, international expansion, digital enhancement, talent development, commercial strategy, sustainability focus and access to Inflexion’s global network. It also benefits from a local presence in Bangalore, Boston, São Paulo and Shanghai dedicated to portfolio development, enabling investee companies to benefit from privileged access to these fast-growth markets.

Funds advised by Inflexion Private Equity Partners LLP have funds under management of c.£7.1bn. 

Read more at www.inflexion.com