A Farmington-based fertility clinic is looking to merge with a Norwalk outfit and their outpatient surgical facilities, a recent state filing shows.
The Center for Advanced Reproductive Services, which has satellite offices in Hartford, Branford and New London, has informed state health regulators of its proposed merger with Reproductive Medicine Associates of Connecticut, according to a recent filing with the Connecticut Office of Health Strategy (OHS).
Under the proposed deal, the Center, an academic affiliate of the UConn School of Medicine, would be the surviving entity. The current physician owners of Reproductive Medicine Associates of Connecticut would join the Center’s existing ownership group.
OHS said in a letter last month that regulatory approval wasn’t needed for the deal because the surviving organization will be at least 60 percent physician-owned. Both groups are currently both full physician-owned and will continue to be after the deal is completed.
It was not exactly clear Friday when the merger is expected to be finalized, and financial terms were not disclosed.
The combination will not impact existing locations and services, state records show.
Both clinics provide fertility-related services, including fertility surgeries, egg retrieval and in vitro fertilization.Â
Led by CEO Paul Verrastro, the Center sees about 1,500 new patients a year, and serves couples experiencing infertility, gay couples, younger women who freeze their eggs to implant later, and couples with no fertility issues but with defective genes, like cystic fibrosis, that can affect offspring.
The Center is operated by In Vitro Sciences, a wholly owned subsidiary of Avon-based Women’s Health USA. The Center was founded in 1982 at UConn Health, which in 1998 outsourced management to In Vitro Sciences. The Center’s building was razed for Bioscience Connecticut in 2014 and relocated 2 miles away at its current location on Batterson Park Road.
