Deloitte acquires life sciences consulting practice of Iperion

Deloitte has acquired the management consulting arm of Iperion, a Netherlands-based life sciences group. 

The deal sees a team of around 40 consultants join Deloitte’s Dutch arm, which is the largest of the Big Four in the Netherlands. The bolt-on bolsters Deloitte’s life sciences offerings, in particular in the field of data governance and regulatory compliance around medicinal products. 

Founded in 2015, Iperion’s consultants help their clients with structuring and digitising data. Much of this data falls under a regulatory banner, and therefore is crucial to approval and speed to market processes. Meanwhile, data is at the heart of medicinal data interoperability, which drives sector-wide innovation and collaboration, as well as internal company improvements leveraging advanced analytics.

On the deal’s benefits, Aida Demneri, a 17-year Deloitter and partner in the Risk Advisory division, said: “Due to Covid-19 crisis there is an increased urgency to bring to market faster and effective medicines, which requires transformation of regulatory practices towards more agile data driven, digitalisation and standardisation of information. Iperion specialises in this field.” 

The deal comes on the back of a year-log collaboration between the two firms, which demonstrated the complementary offerings of the consultancies and the shared values of team members. “Their knowledge and passion are what especially attracted us to Iperion. We are looking forward to joining forces,” said Harvey Christophers, Managing Partner at Deloitte Risk Advisory in the Netherlands.

Integrating into one of the globe’s largest consultancies will help Iperion make “a greater contribution to the accelerated approval of new or improved medicines as well as the provision of high-quality information to patients and the healthcare sector,” said Frits Stulp, co-founder of Iperion. 

“This is a logical next step for us,” added Karel Bastiaanssen, Iperion's other co-founder.

As part of the integration, Frits Stulp will join Deloitte as a partner, while Bastiaanssen will stay on for the next few years as an advisor to support integration and growth. Iperion will operate under the ‘Iperion – a Deloitte business’ and continue to operate from its base in Vlijmen, located close to ‘s-Hertogenbosch. 

Iperion’s IT business (Iperion Information Systems) is not part of the acquisition and will continue to operate as Colbright.

The deal is Deloitte first in the Netherlands since it picked up marketing agency Pervorm in May 2019, and Boer & Croon Corporate Finance in November 2018. Globally, the Big Four has since seen dozens of smaller acquisitions join its ranks.