Atlas
Back to Pharma Services
Investment Banker·Pharma Services

Israel Akinrinsola

Managing Director, Healthcare Strategic Advisory at Evercore

London, United Kingdom

IA
LinkedIn
Why they matter

London-based Evercore healthcare banker with a live track record on pharma services, CDMO capacity, and specialty pharma carve-outs across Europe's largest 2019-2024 deals.

Background

Israel Akinrinsola is a Managing Director in Evercore's Healthcare Strategic Advisory practice in London, which he joined in 2018 to focus on M&A, strategic collaborations, and financing for pharmaceutical, biotech, pharma services, and medtech clients across Europe. He previously worked as an equity research analyst covering European pharmaceuticals at Barclays and trained as a chartered accountant at EY, giving him both sell-side analyst and financial-reporting grounding before moving into advisory.

Notable deals

  • 2024
    Advised on Novo Nordisk's acquisition of three fill-finish manufacturing sites from Novo Holdings, part of the Novo Holdings/Catalent transaction
  • 2024
    Advised Autolus Therapeutics on its strategic CAR-T cell therapy collaboration with BioNTech, including a $200M ADS private placement and $50M upfront cash payment
  • 2020
    Advised on Sanofi's $3.68 billion acquisition of Principia Biopharma, adding BTK inhibitor assets including rilzabrutinib
  • 2019
    Advised on the sale of Nestlé Skin Health to a consortium led by EQT and ADIA for CHF 10.2 billion

Call-prep brief

Israel Akinrinsola — Evercore, Managing Director, Healthcare Strategic Advisory

Background

  • Joined Evercore London in 2018; covers pharma, biotech, pharma services, and medtech across Europe
  • Prior career: European pharma equity research at Barclays, then chartered accountant training at EY — gives him both a public-markets and financial-reporting lens on deals

Current focus

  • Cross-border pharma/biotech M&A, strategic collaborations, and carve-outs, with recent reps spanning manufacturing site acquisitions (Novo Nordisk/Catalent fill-finish), cell-therapy partnering (Autolus/BioNTech), and specialty pharma consolidation (SIFI/Faes Farma)
  • Regularly sits on deals with a CDMO/manufacturing-capacity angle, relevant to due diligence on outsourced pharma manufacturing dynamics

What he cares about

  • Deal structuring in situations with complex stakeholders (e.g., sovereign-linked buyers, PE consortiums, spin-out manufacturing assets)
  • Positioning European biopharma/pharma-services assets for global (especially US) strategic and financial buyers

Recent moves

  • Two live 2024 mandates (Novo Nordisk fill-finish sites; Autolus/BioNTech) suggest an active current pipeline in manufacturing capacity and biologics partnering

Potential sensitivities

  • As an active sell-side/advisory banker, expect caution discussing live or recently-closed client mandates in detail; frame questions around market observations rather than confidential deal terms
  • May be conflicted from commenting on specific CDMO targets he has advised on or against

Questions to ask

  1. What's driving the current wave of fill-finish and biologics manufacturing capacity M&A in Europe, and which capacity gaps are buyers most willing to pay up for?
  2. How are buyers underwriting stranded-asset risk in pharma services carve-outs (e.g., Novo Holdings/Catalent-style site sales)?
  3. Which European pharma services/CDMO assets does he see as most likely to come to market in the next 12-18 months, and what's driving valuation multiples for them?

Outreach draft

Subject
Quick call on European pharma services M&A
Hi Israel, I'm reaching out from a private equity firm doing diligence on the pharma services and CDMO space in Europe. Your work at Evercore on deals like the Novo Nordisk fill-finish site acquisition and the Autolus/BioNTech collaboration caught our attention as directly relevant to a thesis we're developing on manufacturing capacity and outsourcing dynamics. Would you have 20-30 minutes in the next couple of weeks for a paid advisory call? We'd like your read on where capacity constraints, valuations, and buyer appetite are heading in this space. Happy to work around your schedule. Best, [Placeholder Name]

Linked companies

Sources