Oak Hill Capital and Dan Renick, a life sciences entrepreneur, announced Wednesday that they have teamed up to launch Petauri Health, a pharmaceutical commercialization services platform.

Oak Hill Capital, a middle-market private equity firm, said it plans to deploy more than $250 million from its latest fund, OHCP VI, to support the New York-based Petauri Health over time. 

The new company’s objective is to assist pharma and life sciences clients to boost patient outcomes by “establishing the scientific, economic, humanistic and societal value of medical advances.” Petauri Health is positioned to accomplish this by acquiring companies that focus on areas like global market access, medical affairs, patient services as well as data and analytics. 

As part of the launch, Renick will serve as CEO of Petauri Health. Renick has nearly 30 years of industry experience, currently serving as co-founder and board member of Quantuvis, a healthcare software company, and previously leading Precision Medicine Group. 

Renick said in a statement that the launch of Petauri Health “could not be more critical” as healthcare innovations strain budgets around the world and hamper the ability of organizations to deliver benefits to patients.

“Once assembled, Petauri’s diverse and accomplished industry experts will partner with clients across numerous commercialization domains to overcome marketplace barriers and speed access to medical advances,” he added.

Over the past decade, private equity has sought to establish a foothold in the healthcare sector, with moves to invest in hospitals and acute care sites followed by gobbling up physician practices and urgent care centers.

But in the last few years, driven in part by the COVID-19 pandemic, firms have developed an appetite for drug development and the biopharma space. A report by the American Investment Council estimated that private equity invested almost $70 billion in life sciences and medical device industries in 2021.

“We look forward to working with Dan to construct a leading and purpose-built pharmaceutical services commercialization company,” Micah Meisel, partner and head of healthcare at Oak Hill Capital, said in a statement. “Dan’s deep subject matter expertise and broad experience across multiple therapeutic areas and healthcare services make him an ideal partner as Oak Hill endeavors to assemble a platform in this attractive industry.”