Investment Is Secured For United BioSource

Bethesda-based United BioSource said on Friday that it has landed a new $125 million investment from the Boston-based equity firm Berkshire Partners.

United BioSource helps pharmaceutical companies determine the effectiveness and economic value of their products. It's a relatively new type of business that, until recent years, was typically conducted by smaller, boutique firms.

Chief executive Ethan D. Leder said that his company is on track to bring in $250 million in revenue this year and that Berkshire's investment will buy about a 20 percent chunk of the company. Leder said that the company will use the money to continue its growth, as it expands its product offerings and acquires more firms to help United BioScience strengthen its portfolio.

Leder said that his company was founded to offer the drug-making industry scientific demonstrations of a drug's benefits rather than marketing expertise.

"The pharmaceutical industry used to spend a lot of money on sales forces to go out to physicians' offices and try to get doctors to use their compounds," he said. "What [companies] are dealing with now is far more scrutiny by major payers like the federal government."

Such customers want "less opinion and more facts," he said.

Most of the company's research work is on drugs that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, or on drugs that are expected to soon receive the agency's blessing.

The company, which was formed in 2003 and has more than 1,300 employees and offices in 20 countries, launched with an investment of $153 million from a group of private-equity funds that included Grotech Capital Group of Baltimore. At the time, that amount was one of the largest investments ever made in a start-up.

Before starting United BioScience, Leder and the company's co-founder and president Mark Clein founded a pharmaceutical distribution firm called US Bioservices, sold in 2003 for $180 million. Before that, Leder founded health-care financing company Healthcare Financial Partners, which he sold for $483 million in 1999.