Good morning, all. Good afternoon, all, and welcome to the Uniphar Interim Results 2024 conference call. My name is Adam, and I'll be your operator today. If you'd like to ask a question in the Q&A portion of today's call, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. I will now hand the call to Alan Smylie to begin. So Alan, please go ahead when you are ready.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Uniphar PLC's interim results presentation, which covers the period from the first of January 2024 to the 30th of June 2024. I'm Alan Smylie, and I look after IR here at Uniphar PLC. Presenting our results today is Ger Rabbette, our CEO, and Tim Dolphin, our CFO. We're also joined on the call today by Brian O'Shaughnessy, our Chief Commercial Officer, Dermot Ryan, our Chief Operating Officer, and Seamus Egan, who heads up corporate development. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that you can access the presentation either on our website, under Latest Results and Presentations, or via the link sent to you when you registered for the conference call. The results presentation will last approximately 20 minutes and will be followed by Q&A.
Please note, the interim results presentation may contain certain forward-looking statements, beliefs, or opinions, which are based on current expectations and projections about future events. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. I would now like to hand you over to our CEO, Gerard.
Thanks, Alan. Let's start on slide five, which gives an overview of the group. Uniphar is a global provider of specialist services into the healthcare sector. We operate across three divisions, working with over 200 of the world's leading pharma and MedTech manufacturers. We serve over 160 countries worldwide and now have operations across Europe, North America, APAC, and MENA. Our group revenue for the half year increased by 10% to EUR 1.4 billion, and we were particularly pleased with the strong growth in the revenue gross profit, which also increased by 10% to EUR 207 million. If you look at each division, Supply Chain & Retail increased gross profit by 8%, Medtech grew by 3%, but Pharma was a standout performer with a 21% increase in gross profit.
If we move to slide six, we outline our financial highlights for the period. Overall, we saw good growth across each of our three divisions, which delivered an EBITDA increase of 6% to EUR 56 million. Our leverage decreased to 1.5 x, and our EPS was broadly flat due to higher interest rates. Adjusted free cash flow remained strong at 69% and with a return on capital employed of 50%, which is at the upper- end of our range. So apart from the impact of higher interest rates, the group delivered another strong set of results. From an M&A perspective, our two acquisitions last year have now been fully integrated, and as ever, we're focused on building and monitoring a very active M&A pipeline.
Without a significant acquisition in the period, we've been able to demonstrate our ability to deliver strong organic growth across all divisions as we focus on growing our existing business, converting our new business pipeline, and traveling with our customers into new markets. As you know, we set a new growth target last year to reach EBITDA of EUR 200 million, and while this is an ambitious goal, we are confident that we are well positioned to double our business again in the medium term. On slide seven, we outline the continued progress we're making on initiatives across our five sustainability pillars. Sustainability remains a key priority for the group. We are following our group sustainability roadmap, which was approved by the board last year, and we're gaining great traction right across our business.
We continue to focus on developing EDI across the group, and we're delighted that our female representation at board level is now 37%. Our science-based targets were formally validated this year with an ambition of at least a 50% reduction in our absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2030. We've also remained engaged with our suppliers, focusing on responsible sourcing and activities to ensure that we work together with our partners to reduce our collective impact on the environment. Finally, we became the key sponsor to a brilliant initiative to plant 100 million native Irish trees over the next 10 years, and we've already funded the planting of 200,000 trees. We continue to make great progress in measuring and improving our impact in terms of sustainability, and this is now reflected in improved external ratings.
If we move on, I'll now walk you through each division's progress during the year. On slide nine, we highlight our strategic objectives, starting with Supply Chain & Retail, and we see this as the foundation of our business. We've maintained and grown our leadership position and increased our margins steadily since IPO. Because of our great market position and the investments we are making, we see more scope to grow share, margin, and profits in the years ahead. Looking at Medtech, this business has very attractive margins, and we believe we can continue to deliver high single-digit gross profit growth in the medium term as we leverage our existing platforms and work with our partners in new geographies.
And in Pharma, we're expecting double-digit growth as we leverage our global commercial platforms to do two things: One, bring a comprehensive range of services to manufacturers across product life cycles, and to leverage this platform to provide sourcing solutions to both HCPs and manufacturers on a global basis. If we turn to slide 10, you can see that in Supply Chain & Retail, we are the clear market leaders with a 54% share in supply chain and the best-in-market retail offering of over 400 pharmacies. This management team can evolve the business from being a pure wholesaler into a vertically integrated platform that touches every point of the value chain, from manufacturer to patients.
What excites us going forward is the opportunity, underpinned by our significant investments in infrastructure and technology, to increase share and margin further. The build of our new high-tech distribution center in Greenogue is now complete, and we're in the middle of the fitting -out stage, and we're on track for our 2026 go live. Look at slide 11, you can see that Supply Chain & Retail has performed well, with revenues of EUR 890 million, and gross profit increasing by 8% to EUR 95.3 million, and we continue to grow share and outperform the market. What's really pleasing for us is that since IPO, we've doubled our gross profit margin percentage to 11%. Move to slide 12, Medtech. To recap, this division delivers an integrated agency model, managing the entire sales, marketing, and distribution value chain on behalf of our partners.
Europe, as you know, is a very fragmented marketplace that poses considerable challenges for specialty manufacturers who wish to enter. We remain committed to building out our pan-European platform in order to offer our clients a one-stop shop for Europe. As you can see from slide 13, this division continues to scale. Revenue is now EUR 133 million, with gross profit increasing to EUR 54 million. Our growth strategy is really well- received by our partners. We now look after 73 clients across two or more countries, and 17 across three or more countries. We fully expect that this division will deliver high single-digits organic gross profit growth in 2024. On slide 14, we talk about our Pharma division, where we're building a global capability to help HCPs and manufacturers to source and supply medicines which are unlicensed or in short supply.
Secondly, to manage the release of specialty medicines to specific patients on behalf of manufacturers before and after approval. On the right, you can see that we've added significant capability in recent years, and we can now offer a full end-to-end service offering. We continue to invest in this platform, and we seek to enhance our service offerings further. On slide 15, we illustrate how our services play out across the product life cycle, supporting pharma and biotech manufacturers on all of the key pressure points. On slide 16, you can see that our Pharma division grew strongly, with revenues of EUR 340 million, and a 21% increase in gross profit to EUR 58 million. In Pharma Services, we are now focused on specialty, moving up the value chain, investing in our service capabilities across pre- and post-launch.
We've had an excellent six months in terms of new business, with a strong pipeline for the rest of the year. As we look forward, we continue to see very significant opportunity for both our On Demand and our Pharma Services business, due to the high growth in specialty and the challenges that manufacturers and government face in helping patients to access these often complex and high-tech treatments, both pre- and post-commercialization. Now I hand over to Tim to provide you with more color on our financials.
Thanks, Ger. I would now like to take you through the financial highlights for the six months to June 2024. I am pleased to say that the group has delivered a strong performance during the period, with gross profit growth across all three divisions. At an overall group level, we generated gross profit of EUR 206.7 million, up 9.9% from the prior year. The group delivered strong organic gross profit growth of 7.4%. EBITDA has increased by 6.3% to EUR 55.9 million, demonstrating the underlying strength of the business. Adjusted earnings per share increased modestly to EUR 0.081 from EUR 0.08. This has resulted in return on capital employed of 14.7%, at the top end of our medium-term guidance of 12%- 15%.
Leverage for the period was 1.5 x. Just moving on then to have a look at gross profit. Gross profit and gross margin percentage are the key financial metrics we use to track profitability at a divisional level. Uniphar Supply Chain & Retail delivered reported growth of 8.1% and organic growth of 3%. This division has strong recurring revenues, plus a stable and robust gross profit profile. In terms of volume, we once again outperformed the market. This division represented 46% of group gross profit for the period. Its gross profit margin increased during the period from 10.6% to 10.7%, reflecting the full consolidation of the McCauley Group. Uniphar Medtech continued to grow during the period. The division delivered reported gross profit growth of 3.4%, all of which was organic.
This was below our guidance of high single-digit growth due to a strong comparator last year. We remain confident in delivering on the expectations for the full year. This division contributed 26% of the group's gross profit for the period, and its gross profit margin increased during the period from 40.2% to 40.4%. Uniphar Pharma delivered reported growth of 20.5%, almost all of which was organic. This reflects a strong performance across both our On Demand and our Pharma Services platform. Our guidance for this division is for double-digit organic growth over the medium term, and we also expect to deliver this in 2024. Uniphar Pharma represents 28% of group gross profit. The divisional gross profit margin decreased slightly from 17.2% to 16.8%, due to the business mix.
Just moving on to the balance sheet then, and have a look at net debt. At a high level, we finished the period with a net bank debt position of EUR 143.6 million, driven by an opening net debt, debt position of EUR 149.9 million, strong EBITDA of EUR 55.9 million, and a working capital inflow of EUR 31.2 million, offset by CapEx, including strategic CapEx, of EUR 35.4 million. Acquisition-related deferred consideration payments of EUR 9.7 million, and other items of EUR 35.7 million, which included exceptional costs, tax, dividends, finance costs, and lease payments. Our strategic CapEx reflects the significant multi-year investment we are making in our new distribution center, Greenogue 2, and our new SAP platform.
Our reported free cash flow for the period was EUR 80.4 million, and I'll take you through the details of that on the next slide. Just on the look of free cash flow then. Here we outline our free cash flow generation and our free cash flow conversion for the period. As you know, we define free cash flow as EBITDA, less investment in working capital, less maintenance CapEx, and our medium-term guidance for free cash flow conversion is 60%-70%. This translated into reported free cash flow conversion of 143.8%. Adjusting for a timing difference of EUR 41.8 million, our adjusted free cash flow conversion came in at 69.1%, which is within our targeted range of 60%-70%. Just moving on then to slide 23, and a look at capital allocation.
Capital allocation has and remains the key focus for the group, as we adopt a very disciplined and balanced investment approach. As we have always said, we will invest in organic and inorganic opportunities across each of our three divisions, which support our strategic objectives and deliver a return on capital inside, at or above our hurdle rate of 12%-15%. We maintain a prudent approach to leverage and aim to keep our net bank debt to EBITDA ratio below 2.5 x over the medium term. I'll hand you back to Ger now to finish on our investment case.
Thanks, Tim. On slide 34, we outlined our investment case. We're going into the next stage of growth, with a much greater number of capabilities than we had at IPO. We've demonstrated a strong track record of delivery. We know this industry well, and we will follow the money. There is a compelling market opportunity, a very favorable market backdrop, and plenty of scope for growth in each of our three divisions. Each division has an attractive competitive moat, and we have a concrete plan in place to grow and deliver on our ambitions. Slide 25 shows our strong track record as a listed company. We've grown our EBITDA, increased our margins, and delivered very substantial growth in earnings per share. This has resulted in our share price increasing by over 130% since IPO.
If we look to slide 36, we outlined our ambitious target to deliver EUR 200 million EBITDA over the medium term. We will achieve this target through robust organic growth across all three divisions, made possible by our investment in technology and infrastructure, complemented with strategic M&A. Our expected organic, inorganic split going forward will be 70/30, as we leverage our platforms, and we remain confident that we can double our business again in the medium term. Thank you for listening. I will now hand back to the operator for Q&A.
Thank you. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question on today's call, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now to enter the queue. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure you are unmuted locally. Our first question today comes from Colin Grant from Davy. Colin, please go ahead. Your line is open.
Great. Thanks very much, and good morning, everybody. I have two questions. Firstly, just on the Pharma division. You had really strong growth in the first half of 20%, your organic growth and your gross profits. And I'm just wondering if you can give us some more details on some of the actions that you're taking to drive that level of growth, in H1? That's the first question. And then the second relates to your Supply Chain & Retail division, and you had, looks like around 5% growth in gross profits just from M&A in the first half, which would include the McCauley acquisition.
I'm just wondering if you can give us some details on how that's going, and just an update, really, on the progress you're making on your strategy to grow market share and the number of pharmacies within the broader symbol group that you have there? Thanks very much.
Thanks, Colin. I'd take the first question before I hand over to Dermot. So really, a great H1 for Pharma, very strong, and that's across both On Demand and Pharma Services, both grew double- digits. When you look at the On Demand, it's driven by the expansion of BModesto offering into new areas, and also the revenue services we delivered as part of the wider On Demand platform. In Pharma Services, this is all driven by expanded access business. We said last year that we were strong with midterm building within our pipeline, and that's come true to fruition in H1.
When you look back at when we acquired Durbin post- IPO, that business was focused on smaller programs, working with smaller companies, and we've been working hard for the last number of years to get into the bigger programs with the bigger companies, and that's what's coming through now. After four hard years of work, it's great to see that proven and showing strong results. Dermot, do you want to take the Supply Chain & Retail question?
Yeah. So the main reason, as you've outlined there, Colin, is the McCauley transaction. I think it was the end of January last year when we finally got to complete it. From an acquisition perspective, I suppose there was a couple of little ICPs that we closed out in quarter four of last year, so there's a timing difference there. And the McCauley acquisition, it's gone really well. We've now, you know, combined as well the management teams on the retail side of our business. We have one retail team managing the business. And I think, you know, in terms of the integration, in terms of systems, people, and I suppose the trading strategy, that's all well managed.
W ell on plan, and we, you know, we've made substantial progress towards the end of last year, and that's continuing into this year with the business, so very happy with that.
Great. Thank you.
Please go.
The next question comes from Charles Weston from RBC. Charles, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hello. Thanks for taking the questions. I'm asking three, please. The first is just to follow up on the expanded access programs. That is obviously going very well now, but have you got a sense of what the market backdrop is here in terms of market growth and how, on what level your market share has got to? My second question is on operating leverage. Sometimes your EBITDA grows faster than gross profit, sometimes less fast as you invest in the business. And I just wanted to understand, perhaps, what your sort of plans were for driving operating leverage on that OpEx line in particular.
And then lastly, and this is a bit more forward looking, please, it relates to the scale and the timing of benefits and return on capital from your new distribution center and ERP system. I appreciate this is still some way off, but if you could just sort of talk about how you think about the potential long-term returns from that, or cost savings or revenue opportunities, that would be great. Thank you.
So Brian, you might take the EAP question, please.
Yeah, of course. Yeah. Thanks, Charles. Great question. So as Ger mentioned, I suppose, in the last question, Charles, when we acquired Durbin, it was mainly focused on biotech and small to medium-sized pharma. So four years on, we've made significant progress now working with big pharma, working with five of the top 10 pharma companies in EAP. So one of the biggest benefits of this is the pipeline of the larger companies. So it gives us a strong position to work on multiple programs with these clients. So one example is one of our larger clients, we've won five programs with them since working with them. The other significant growth in this sector is within cell and gene, where even companies that have traditionally run programs in-house are now outsourcing these programs.
Uniphar has developed a reputation now for being the experts within cell and gene for expanded access. We've launched a specific Cell and Gene business unit to support both EAP and into commercialization services. As you know, the sales cycle here is long, so it can take two to three years to infiltrate some of these accounts. Even with the biotechs, we're talking to them as early as phase II or early phase III, with programs up again to late- phase III or even post- FDA approval. Our market position from our perspective, we've the market leading service, but it's still competitive, but we made significant progress over the last four years.
Tim, do you want to cover the rest of questions here?
Yeah, Charles, as Gerard said in the presentation, we've invested about EUR 4 million in growing a organic platform in the U.S. and in Europe. So we've expanded out our European Commercialization Platform, and we're also taking some initiatives in the U.S. to expand the business organically. This has, as I said, about a EUR 4 million drag on profitability in 2024 and also in 2023. We would expect those businesses then to move into profitability next year.
And then the rest of three or two, Charles. It's a multi-year project. When we see it, it's a multi-year project. It was four years planning, and now we're in the implementation stage, which is three years. And we're with a target go live date of Q3 2026. So it's going according to plan. But it's a very substantial project for us, and it will start to bring cash again post go live in 2027.
Can I just follow up on that? Will there be a time when you can be running two distribution centers at the same time? Well, I guess there will be a time when you are running two distribution centers at the same time. Is that likely to cause a blip in the margins, maybe around 2026 or 2027?
I think from our perspective, we see this as a huge opportunity for the company. We can do this in a non-live environment to mitigate any risk. So that's why we're so confident that we'll get this in without any risk. But there will ... there is a cost for a period of running both systems, Charles, yes. Tim?
Yes, there's going to be a cost, Charles, obviously, having the two distribution centers going for a period of six months once everything... But we built that cost into the cost of the investment, so it's something that we've been planning for, and it's something that we try to make sure that we minimize as much as possible.
Okay. There's no quantification of benefits yet?
Pardon?
That, you're not.
Sorry, Charles.
Sorry, you're not providing any quantification of the potential benefits yet, or you're waiting a bit until you do that?
Yeah, like everybody's asked us, you know, like, "Oh, what's the impact of G2 going to be?" And as you can imagine, and as we said previously, it's going to reduce our cost to serve by up to 50%. So that's going to have a huge impact going forward. It's also going to give us a extra capabilities to increase our gross margin. So between the operation efficiencies, the extra opportunities there, it's going to be a huge inflection point for the company. But we're not in a position yet to quantify those figures. It's site- level anyhow.
Okay. Thanks very much, everyone.
Thanks, Charles.
The next question comes from Paul Cuddon from Deutsche Bank. Paul, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you very much. I've got two questions, if I may. If you could start by helping me reconcile the 8% wholesale kind of volume growth within Supply Chain & Retail with the 3% kind of reported gross profit growth. Is there some sort of pricing dynamic, consumer spending pressure, mix impact that's sort of affecting that?
I'll take that one, Paul. The 8% growth for Supply Chain & Retail has been driven up the gross margins, mainly due to the acquisition of the McCauley group, which is fully consolidated this year. It was only in from February of last year. There's also been some acquisitions last year in the ITB area, which would have also impacted on that. So we take that impact out, it will reconcile you back down from the 8% to the 3%.
No, sorry, Tim. It's the wholesale volume growth that I'm specifically referring to.
No, there isn't any pricing impact on that. Like, the wholesale market is growing at 3%-4%. Our volume growth has gone up by 8%, and you'll see our market share has increased slightly from 53% last year to 54%. So there isn't any change in pricing mixes on that. If anything, we've been driving our margin in the Supply Chain & Retail area, and we would see an enhancement in our gross margin later on in the year.
So while our gross margin would have slightly fallen in the first half of the year, we expect that to recover in the second half of the year and to be stable for the full year.
Okay. Thank you. And second question, I mean, you've specifically highlighted the benefit of GLP-1s, presumably to the Supply Chain & Retail. Just thinking longer term, if these kind of medications do sort of deliver the benefits across obesity, diabetes, and some other disorders, is there a potential risk they cannibalize other sort of medications and potentially also expand into the Medtech business as well?
That's a very tough question. I think, Brian, would you have any thoughts on that?
There's a hospital pass, Brian. So there definitely, Paul, you know, people more qualified, I think, to speak about the exact breadth of diseases that GLP-1s will ultimately treat and the impact on the sector. But fundamentally, when you look at the investment in research and development across the pharma industry, new therapies and the breadth of diseases that these are treating, in particular, you know, in the arena of rare disease and cell and gene, it certainly gives us confidence that there will be continued for our services, you know, across both Pharma and Medtech.
Superb. Thank you.
The next question comes from Christian Glennie from Stifel. Christian, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the question. I guess start off with on Pharma and the EAP, but particularly this concept of, you know, the pull-through to be able to then, you know, not just run that EAP program, but then ultimately win a more of a commercial service contract on the as a result of that. Just to articulate a little bit about in terms of how you're progressing there, and what should the expectations be in terms of converting, you know, a building pipeline of the EAP and some wins into commercial contracts?
Brian, do you want to take that?
Yeah, thanks again, Christian. So, ultimately, you know, our goal is to connect up, and we are connecting up that full life cycle, and working with all of our Pharma Services businesses to cross-pollinate on opportunities and work with our clients, you know, throughout the life cycle. And the EAP gives us a really strong position for that. So we think about what we are doing with EAP is, we are the first trusted partner that are delivering these really sophisticated high-tech therapies to patients in a real world setting. So really well placed to continue those services into the commercial world.
So our investment, organic investment in those commercial services in Europe, it's a long sales cycle, but a big focus is working with our EAP clients to demonstrate our capabilities of leveraging everything, the infrastructure we build through EAPs and the benefits of that in terms of the commercialization. You know, small patient populations, we're working with the key opinion leaders in all the countries we're working with, with the EAPs. You know, we set up the commercial infrastructure for delivering into the hospitals, enrolling patients, institutions, doctors, having order to cash. So there's huge benefits to be gained by our clients continuing that service. But 50% of our pipeline on the commercial services are coming from EAP. But as mentioned, it's an organic investment.
You know, we're starting from scratch, and we've built up a really good reputation, really strong conversations, but you're absolutely right, EAP is a core focus in terms of, you know, converting those clients into broader services.
That's a concept. That's a strategy that is yet to play out, I guess. I'm trying to fully understand. It's not yet in play, but it will take a couple of years to play out.
It's absolutely in play in terms of the conversations that we have. But as mentioned, it's an organic investment that we have made here. And so it's the pipeline in terms of conversations we're having with the commercial services. 50% of them are coming from the EAP, but yes, still to convert. But it's not just on the for a European focus, but there's also sort of, you know, broader geographies that we can service for those commercial services for EAP. But, you know, that organic investment will take time to come to fruition.
Thanks. And then on Medtech, please, just a couple of things there. There's obviously been some reasonably material sort of shift, you know, phasing of this medical equipment sales of strong benefit in the first half last year. It was a headwind this year. Is there something going on in that market that should continue to expect this volatility, or should that smooth out over time? Just to understand, maybe something going on in the more wider market. And then in terms of the sort of white space that's still there in Europe, in some of the key markets, France, Spain, Italy, and the like, the plans to tackle those markets, please.
Yeah, you can see a bit of Medtech. It's a great business with a huge amount of recurring income, so we've very clear visibility of where we are this year or next year. There is this capital element, which can be bulky, and that's reflected. But if you look at the comparatives, the 9.8% organic growth last year, and we're on track to do high single-digits this year, like, so I think it's just part of the business. The lumpy part is in the capital equipment, which is really controlled within H1 and H2. But the business is going really strongly for the growth over the last two years. It's driving very well.
From a geographic focus, I think that our short-term focus is to harvest what we've already invested in Northern Europe and really grow that business. We feel that Europe is definitely an opportunity for us in the longer term, but in the next year or two, we focus on in Northern Europe and drive on with our different platforms and continue to drive the double-digit growth that we see for the business.
Thank you. And then just finally, if I can just maybe push a bit on the EUR 200 million EBITDA target over the medium term. Just to understand, you've obviously talked about this as an ambitious target for the business. Does that... You know, how should the market interpret that? Does that mean that's a stretch target in your eyes, or is this something that actually should really be reasonably achievable?
I think we're, as a business, very ambitious, so it is an ambitious target, but we believe it's completely within our ability to deliver. Like we said, you know, the split organic, inorganic is 70/30 within the medium term, we can get there, and I think we're very confident when we look at where we are today, that we can get to EUR 200 million, which EBITDA. So we don't see it as a stretch target. We see it as achievable.
Okay, great. Thank you.
As a reminder, that's star followed by one. The next question comes from Brian White, from Shore Capital. Brian, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for taking my questions. I've got, I've got two. The first one's again on EAPs. And I guess whenever we speak to small biotech drug developers, they're, they're very aware of the potential for early access. And, you know, just given some of your commentary on your activity with Big Pharma, your specialization in the highly, highly complex field of cell and gene therapy, is there a risk that given all this activity, you become resource constrained? I don't mean in terms of numbers, but in terms of the complexity of the offering that you have. And then just secondly, on... You're going to see, and they've come to you on the MedTech acquisition strategy.
I guess, you know, looking at the Pharma division, as you seek to enhance and broaden some of the services that you offer, particularly to move into commercialization services, are you seeing pretty much everything that's out there just now, and if you are missing things, is it purely financial? Because, you know, from our perspective, Uniphar, it's like a go-to partner, particularly for the Pharma division. Thank you.
Brian?
Yeah, in terms of the resource constraints, so, so great questions, Brian, and the complexity, like, there are long lead-in times here, and obviously, you know, this is something that has been, we've been talking about now for, you know, quite a while, and that organic investment. So it's, you know, the strategy is in place. The organic investment is in place. And the programs as they ramp up, there's a long lead in terms of our ability to further invest in order to deliver on those programs. We'll also see that some of the services we're offering are outsourced.
So one of the complexities of being able to commercialize a product in Europe is the number of partners that you need to actually put in place. So it's easy, or easier for Big Pharma because they deal with infrastructure in place. But for small biotechs, if you look at the structural drivers, over the last 10 years, only 60% of FDA-approved products have launched in Europe because of the complexity. So unless it's going to be licensed out to Big Pharma, they have to look at means of being able to do it themselves. But in order to do that, you need at least 60 - 100 partners to be put in place for full commercialization across Europe, from market access, regulatory, medical affairs, supply chain, and CSO.
So what we have done is we've invested in the core services in-house, but we've also put in place MSAs for some of those services that we can outsource to give a full- service solution. So it's not just about Uniphar delivering all of these programs and all of these services. We have partners in place throughout Europe in order to support us and augment our services. And then if you just repeat the second question again, Brian, do you mind?
Yeah, no, it's really on the back of the M&A front for the Pharma division, and we're seeing everything that's out there, and if you're missing things, why? Why is that? Or are you not missing anything, I guess?
I don't think we're missing anything. So, as you know, we work hard on M&A, so having closed close to 25 deals since IPO, and most of those are coming from, you know, just our own pipeline. So we don't wait for, I suppose, the deals to come to us. We've got a database of over 3,000 companies we've profiled. Can't say I'm having conversations, but fundamentally, it's to make sure that there's a strategic fit, culture fit, and absolutely delivering a return on capital employed for our investors at 15%, 12%-15%. So we make sure that it's sort of achieving all of those things, constantly having active conversations.
One thing we have called out is market access is an area of focus for Pharma Services. But we're also at a point now where we can invest organically, that people can see the Uniphar platform, and we're attracting really strong talent from the sector to build some of these services organically. I think that's demonstrated in the most recent results in terms of the strength of the organic growth across the business.
Great. That's very helpful. Thank you.
The next question is from Sam England, from Berenberg. Sam, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking the questions. So firstly, it's a year on from announcing the rebrand and resegmentation of the company. Can you talk a bit about the benefits that you're seeing from those changes so far? How they've improved the go-to-market for the company, and how customers have reacted to those changes so far? And then secondly, you know, now that acquisitions like BModesto have had time to integrate, can you talk a bit about the commercial synergies that you mentioned in your presentation? You know, how much has been achieved on commercial and revenue synergies? How much is there still to go? And you know, exactly what areas you're benefiting from. Thanks.
For the rebrand, really had benefited our Pharma Services business and how we show up to meet our customer base. And Medtech was always a standalone business, branded separately, same with Supply Chain & Retail, but Pharma Services, we've seen a big improvement in how we show up and present the integrated service offering to our Pharma clients. Brian?
Yeah, thanks, Ger. Yeah, so we're seeing significant improvement, I suppose, in the recognition within the Pharma sector of Uniphar as a global trusted brand that is committed to our client success. And core part of that is turning up with that breadth of expertise under one brand.
We've got a lot more capability than, you know, sometimes we give our sales credit for internally across our teams, and certainly that we are going to market with. By combining these services and the awareness, even with our own people to see opportunities across the sector, is seeing of the services we're offering. We're seeing benefits now in that cross-pollination of services. The rebrand and continued investment in our services improves that sort of ability to work with our clients from one service to another. And as mentioned, a good example is 50% of the pipeline of our commercial services coming from our EAP clients.
We also see continued benefits within our drug development and clinical services, supporting our ability to win EAP programs in the U.S., with another U.S. program being one, so team up as one, seeing the opportunities, you know, together, and our BD teams working together, we're starting to see good benefits.
So Dermot, do you want to talk about BModesto?
Yeah. So Sam, I think the first thing on the recent acquisitions and On Demand are really around that, you know, they've strengthened our management team in On Demand. So we've brought some really good people into the business. I think the big thing for me now, in terms of On Demand, as we build out our global platform, is our sourcing capabilities, and I think those capabilities have allowed us to expand into new markets. So we're expanding geographically in terms of, you know, launching new service lines through BModesto in Central Europe. We've launched our PI offering in the U.K. to complement our existing business there with Durbin. We've had a really strong performance in Asia- Pac, the Orspec.
And we've strengthened our position, marketing position in Ireland, with PharmaSource, particularly in our Hospital business. So you can start to see the synergies really coming through now, and it's exciting, I suppose, to see that post the integration of those recent businesses that we've acquired.
Great. Thanks very much.
We have a follow-up from Charles Weston at RBC. Charles, please go ahead.
Thanks very much. Brian, you mentioned this pipeline of, sorry, this sort of network of partners you've got across Europe to help with the commercialization side. Would the ultimate goal be to fully own and consolidate all of those capabilities over time once you sort of reach critical mass? And does that mean that you might see some of those partners as part of your M&A pipeline?
Yeah, I think you've seen our formula before, Charles, where we absolutely do like to work with people first, before acquisition, I suppose. It just proves out the acquisition case, establishes the relationship, let us get to know them. So with some of those services, Charles, you know, we could see that happening, you know, particularly in the area of things like market access and regs. But there's also services that we don't necessarily need to own within that, I suppose, broad service offering. We don't necessarily need to have, you know, distribution capabilities in every single market.
You know, it's small. These tend to be very small patient populations, and there'd be other ways that we can manage that, and also things like, you know, CSOs. So some services may not have high- enough value for us to enter into. So it goes back to the point around, you know, ensuring that we're continually focused on being able to deliver on the target return on capital employed, 12%-15%. But there are absolutely some of those services that are high value, and would augment well into our service offering. And working with partners first, you know, proves, helps establish the investment case.
Okay. Thanks, Brian.
Nothing further with the queue at present, but as a final reminder, that star followed by one on your telephone keypad. We have no further questions, so I'll hand it back to the management team.
Great. Listen, we appreciate our shareholders' support over the years, and we look forward to delivering a very strong H2 for our shareholder base. So, we'll crack on and keep delivering shareholder value. Thanks for listening.
This concludes today's call. Thank you very much for your attendance. You may now disconnect your lines.