The management team of Knutsford, Cheshire-based Fishawack Group, the medical communications firm, said it completed a tertiary management buyout in a deal worth £38 million.

Working with LDC, the mid-market private equity firm, the Fishawack management bought out Growth Capital Partners (GCP) “providing a strong exit after their support of the group over the last four years.”

Fishawack has US offices in Philadelphia and San Francisco, UK offices in Manchester, Oxford and Brighton, a Switzerland office in Basel and a team in Hyderabad, India.

Fishawack said it employs more than 240 people, most of whom hold PhDs or are pharmacists or ex-industry personnel.

“Working with 15 of the top 20 pharma companies as well as innovative biotech companies, Fishawack supports medical affairs and marketing teams in educating physicians about how to optimise patient outcomes,” the firm said.

Fishawack group managing director Gail Flockhart said: “This is good for clients and employees who want to work with a business that is shaping the communications industry.

“Fishawack will benefit from increased scale, reach, services and talent. Clients tell us that they want innovation.

“Innovation is part of our DNA, but it takes investment of time, money and commitment because of the lead time to drive adoption of new ideas.

“This investment in Fishawack will really accelerate our development.”

Oliver Dennis, Fishawack co-founder and chief executive said: “We’re really excited about working with the team at LDC.

“We’ve been able to build a good relationship with them over a period of time and so we’ll hit the ground running.

“I can see that they share our ambition for the group and on a personal level will be a good fit with us as a management team.

“We have a clear vision and a bold plan, and we have an investor that can help us to achieve them.”

LDC investment director Simon Braham said: “We’ve provided a funding structure that will allow Fishawack management to continue their strategy of acquiring complementary businesses in the medical communications and medical marketing space.

“Also, Fishawack have been developing some innovative new services and forming novel partnership agreements. We want to support them in scaling these up.”