{"id":11697,"date":"2026-01-13T07:51:50","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T06:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shs-capital.eu\/?p=11697"},"modified":"2026-01-13T07:53:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T06:53:36","slug":"healthcare-specialist-shs-capital-agreed-to-sell-pathoquest-to-strategic-buyer-charles-river-laboratories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shs-capital.eu\/healthcare-specialist-shs-capital-agreed-to-sell-pathoquest-to-strategic-buyer-charles-river-laboratories\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthcare Specialist SHS Capital agreed to sell PathoQuest to strategic buyer Charles River Laboratories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Healthcare specialist private equity fund SHS Capital and its co-investors have agreed to sell PathoQuest SAS, the leader in Next Generation Sequencing (NGS)-based quality control for biopharmaceuticals, to Charles River Laboratories International, Inc.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The transaction brings together PathoQuest\u2019s proprietary NGS capabilities with Charles River\u2019s global scale to accelerate the adoption of advanced, animal-free biotesting<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The acquisition marks an important milestone in PathoQuest\u2019s development and supports its next phase of international growth<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Healthcare Specialist SHS Capital agreed to sell its portfolio company PathoQuest, a specialist in NGS-based quality control assays for biopharmaceuticals, to the strategic buyer Charles River Laboratories, a leading global provider of products and services that support drug discovery and non-clinical development.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Founded in Paris, PathoQuest has established itself as a reference player in NGS-based viral safety and genetic characterisation testing for biopharmaceuticals. Its proprietary iDTECT\u00ae platform enables highly sensitive, comprehensive and GMP-compliant quality control, addressing the growing complexity of biologic modalities and increasing regulatory expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over recent years, the company has further developed its technology platform, strengthened operational structures and expanded its commercial focus towards late-stage and commercial biopharmaceuticals where GMP compliance is critical. During this period, PathoQuest also broadened its international footprint, including the establishment and certification of a second GMP-compliant site in the United States, enabling it to better serve global biotech and biopharma customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The strategic combination with Charles River builds on a long-standing partnership and reflects the increasing role of NGS-based methods in biopharmaceutical safety testing. By combining PathoQuest\u2019s specialised NGS expertise with Charles River\u2019s global reach, regulatory capabilities and customer base, the transaction aims to further scale advanced, data-rich and animal-free testing approaches across the lifecycle of biopharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPathoQuest has continuously evolved its technology, organisation and international presence to meet the growing demands of the biopharmaceutical market,\u201d said Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Brepson, CEO of PathoQuest. \u201cBecoming part of Charles River represents a strong strategic step to accelerate our mission and make NGS-based biosafety testing the global standard. We thank SHS for supporting us over the years to become the global partner of choice in our industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPathoQuest\u2019s NGS-based capabilities are highly complementary to Charles River\u2019s biopharmaceutical service portfolio,\u201d said Kerstin Dolph, Senior Vice President Manufacturing at Charles River Laboratories. \u201cAs biologic modalities become more complex, our clients increasingly require comprehensive, highly sensitive and scalable quality control solutions. This acquisition strengthens our ability to support customers globally and to help advance modern, data-driven and animal-free testing approaches across the lifecycle of biopharmaceuticals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis transaction reflects the successful development of PathoQuest over recent years,\u201d said Sascha Alilovic, Managing Partner at SHS Capital. \u201cTogether with our co-investors, SHS supported the company in strengthening its operational foundation, expanding into the US with GMP-compliant capabilities and sharpening its commercial positioning. Based on the successful strategy execution, PathoQuest was able to quadruple its revenues since SHS invested. The combination with Charles River provides a strong platform for the next phase of growth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About PathoQuest<\/strong>:<br>With over 20 peer-reviewed publications on NGS applications, PathoQuest is a leading expert in the application of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)-compliant Next Generation Sequencing (NGS)-based biosafety testing. PathoQuest offers biopharmaceutical companies a game-changing genomic approach to ensuring the safety of biologics such as cell and gene therapy products, vaccines, and recombinant proteins, ultimately enabling a reduction in the time to market for these innovative treatments. PathoQuest\u2019s technology combines NGS platforms with proprietary sample preparation and data analysis processes to bring novel solutions to the industry. PathoQuest, headquartered in Paris, France, with a US based site in Wayne (PA) has worked with over 100 of the leading biopharmaceutical companies globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About SHS Capital<\/strong>:<br>SHS Capital is a private equity provider founded in 1993 that invests in healthcare companies in Europe. The focus of the investments is on expansion financing, shareholder changes and succession situations. &#8220;Building European Healthcare Champions&#8221; is the investment philosophy according to which SHS finances and develops portfolio companies. The T\u00fcbingen-based investor takes both minority and majority stakes. The national and international investors in SHS funds include pension funds, funds of funds, foundations, family offices, strategic investors, entrepreneurs and the SHS management team. The equity or equity-like investment of the AIF is up to \u20ac 50 million. Volumes in excess of this can be realised with a network of co-investors. In its investment decisions, SHS attaches great importance to the consideration of ESG aspects and has therefore committed itself to the guidelines of the UN PRI. SHS is currently investing from its sixth fund, which was launched in 2022 and has a volume of ca. \u20ac 270 million. More information at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shs-capital.eu\">http:\/\/www.shs-capital.eu<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Are you interested in receiving regular updates about SHS? Subscribe to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shs-capital.eu\/news\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.shs-capital.eu\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Newsletter<\/a> and follow us on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/shs-gesellschaft-fuer-beteiligungsmanagement-mbh\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/shs-gesellschaft-fuer-beteiligungsmanagement-mbh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>PR contact:<\/strong><br>Regine Hujer<br>SHS Gesellschaft f\u00fcr Beteiligungsmanagement mbH<br>Bismarckstrasse 12<br>72072 Tuebingen<br><a href=\"mailto:tuebingen@shs-capital.eu\">tuebingen@shs-capital.eu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Healthcare Specialist SHS Capital agreed to sell its portfolio company PathoQuest, a specialist in NGS-based quality control assays for biopharmaceuticals, to the strategic buyer Charles River Laboratories, a leading global provider of products and services that support drug discovery and non-clinical development. Founded in Paris, PathoQuest has established itself as a reference player in NGS-based [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":325,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shs-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shs-capital.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shs-capital.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shs-capital.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shs-capital.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shs-capital.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shs-capital.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shs-capital.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shs-capital.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shs-capital.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shs-capital.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}