Lindus Health and the Structural Problem With the Neo-CRO Model

TL;DR

Lindus Health sold its CRO business on August 18 and became a drug developer, Lindus Therapeutics. TrialSpark made the same move in 2023, and Science 37 sold for about $38 million after going public above $1 billion. The sponsor captures most of the upside from a faster trial, while the CRO gets a fee. If you have built a better engine, owning the assets is the logical endpoint.

Lindus Health sold its CRO business on August 18 and became a drug developer. The move exposes a structural problem in the neo-CRO model: the sponsor captures most of the upside from a faster trial.

Lindus launched in 2021 as the anti-CRO. Roughly $73 million raised, with Thiel and Balderton on the cap table and Robert Langer advising. The CRO assets went to Curavit. The remaining company is now called Lindus Therapeutics. It will in-license clinical-stage assets and run the trials itself.

The founders have given no reason for the pivot.

Other neo-CROs that made the same pivot

TrialSpark made the same move in 2023 and is now Formation Bio, funded by a16z and Sanofi. Science 37 went public above $1 billion and sold to eMed in 2024 for about $38 million. Three well-funded attempts to rebuild the CRO. None operates as a scaled CRO today.

The economics explain the pressure. A service business runs on mid-teens margins and receives a services multiple. An asset developer is valued on its pipeline. A company funded at a billion-dollar valuation needs upside that fees struggle to support.

Where does the value of a faster trial land? The sponsor gets an earlier launch and a better chance of success. The CRO gets a fee. The sponsor gets the rNPV.

If you have built a better engine, owning the assets is the logical endpoint.