July 2025: Kester Capital ("Kester"), a leading UK private equity investor, is pleased to announce that Evestia Clinical ("Evestia") has acquired Atlantic Research Group (“ARG”), a US-based clinical research organisation (“CRO”). Based in Charlottesville, Virginia, ARG has provided its clients with a wide range of clinical trial services, spanning several complex therapeutic areas for over 20 years, and has a long-standing reputation for outstanding quality of service provision.
The acquisition will expand Evestia’s US footprint, a key step in the business’s strategy to create a global, specialist CRO focused on providing pharmaceutical and biotech customers with a full suite of clinical trial services across the drug development life cycle. ARG’s expertise in neurology adds to Evestia’s specialisms in oncology and rare diseases trials. The enlarged group will operate from Letchworth (UK), New Jersey (US) and Virginia (US), and employ c.150 staff.
This strategically important investment continues Kester’s positive momentum, following its March 2025 investment in Re-flow, a provider of field service management software to the critical infrastructure industry, and the realisation of two of its platform investments in 2024, representing Kester’s third and fourth consecutive exits over 4x.
Evestia Clinical, formerly known as EMAS Pharma, was acquired by Kester and an experienced executive team (including Richard Barfield (Chair), Lewis Cameron (CEO), Roy Ovel (CCO), and Carl Hvass (CFO)) in December 2024. Evestia’s executive team has an exceptional track record of building leading CROs with a reputation for operational excellence, including at Chiltern International, a top 10 global CRO that was acquired by Labcorp in 2017 and a former Kester portfolio company.
Following the acquisition of ARG, the combined group will continue to be led by the Evestia executive team, who will be joined by Paul Bishop (ARG CEO and co-founder) and Lyle Camblos (ARG President and co-founder).
Richard Barfield, Chair of Evestia Clinical, said: “Evestia Clinical was founded to rapidly build a global specialist CRO through organic and acquisitive growth. The Evestia Clinical board and leadership team identified ARG as the perfect company to combine with at this stage in our journey. The reputation of ARG’s leadership team and its high-quality CRO offering is widely recognised within the biotech and pharma industry, and we are excited that they have chosen to grow with us as part of the Evestia Clinical group.”
Adam Maidment, Managing Partner of Kester Capital, said: “The addition of ARG to Evestia Clinical is an important step in Evestia’s goal to become a truly global specialist CRO that provides high-quality, tailored services to clients in complex, high-research therapeutic areas. We look forward to working with Paul and Lyle, and continuing to support Evestia in its growth ambitions, both organically and through further acquisitions.”