Opko Health Inc. (NYSE: OPK; TASE: OPK), controlled by chairman Dr. Phillip Frost, has announced today that it is acquiring Ireland's EirGen Pharma. Opko will pay $100 million cash and a further $35 million in shares for the specialty pharmaceutical company which develops cancer chemotherapy treatments.
EirGen, based in Waterford, Ireland, was founded by two former executives of IVAX Pharmaceuticals, Tom Brennan and Patsy Carney. The company, situated in a state of the art high containment research and development, and manufacturing facility, is approved by the FDA, EMEA (European Health Authorities) and the PMDA (Japanese Health Authorities). High potency drugs such as those used for cancer chemotherapy are typically unsuitable for manufacture in normal multi-product facilities due to cross contamination risks.
To date, EirGen and its commercial partners have filed 10 product applications with the FDA and 5 each in Europe and Japan. EirGen has a strong research and development portfolio of over 20 niche, high barrier to entry drugs and, with access to additional capital that OPKO will provide, together with the benefits of Irish government programs to encourage research and development in Ireland, EirGen will rapidly expand its drug portfolio.
Dr. Frost said, “EirGen Pharma is one of the leading developers and suppliers of high potency niche pharmaceutical products in the world. As FineTech, OPKO’s Israeli active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing subsidiary, is also focused on high potency drugs, an immediate business synergy is expected. EirGen also offers the significant benefit of potentially being able to manufacture OPKO’s current and future products in our own facilities, which we expect will result in even higher gross margins."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 6, 2015
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2015