OMERS quietly co-invested in Medical Knowledge Group alongside Novo

It turns out that the private equity arm of Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System participated in Novo Holdings’ acquisition of Medical Knowledge Group from Court Square Capital and Aisling Capital, PE Hub has learned. The purchase of the analytics-driven drug commercialization platform was announced in January, but OMERS wasn’t mentioned in Novo’s press release, and the pension fund didn’t issue its own.

Earlier this week, Kirk Falconer, our colleague over at Buyouts, noticed that MKG was listed as a portfolio company on the OMERS website. We reached out to the fund and received the following confirmation from managing director Geoffrey Bird:

“OMERS Private Equity is proud to have become an investor in Medical Knowledge Group, a leading service provider to some of the world’s largest biopharmaceutical companies as well as niche biotech firms. We are excited to be backing CEO Leon Behar and his strong leadership team, and also to be partnering with a successful healthcare investor like Novo Holdings in its acquisition of MKG.”

Bird led OMERS’ investment in MKG. In March, he moved over to lead investments in business services, and Mark Van Wart was appointed head of healthcare investments.

A pioneer in LP direct investing, OMERS completed a deal for Gastro Health back in November.

MKG was founded in 2004 by Behar. Over the past 17 years, it has grown to more than 500 employees across four offices located in New York, New Jersey and Georgia. “With the remarkable growth trajectory of the biopharmaceutical services industry, largely driven by more complex therapeutics reaching the market and an increased global demand for omnichannel communications targeting healthcare providers, MKG has positioned itself in a very attractive space,” said Abhijeet Lele, senior partner and head of principal investments US at Novo Holdings, in the deal announcement.