FORMER ELAN executive Séamus Mulligan has gone back to his old employer to acquire rights to its Prialt drug, which is used to manage severe chronic pain.
Mulligan has agreed to buy the worldwide rights, other than Europe, through Azur Pharma Ltd, a company he founded in 2005. The deal was agreed last night, although it won’t close until some time in the second quarter of 2010.
No acquisition fee is being disclosed, but I understand that Azur intends to fund the purchase from its cash reserves. As part of the deal, Azur is acquiring a 34-strong team to market and distribute the drug in the US.
Prialt generated $20 million in sales in the US in 2009, and $18 million the previous year.
This is Mulligan’s sixth acquisition since Azur was set up – it spent about $100 million on the previous five.
Last year, it bought the exclusive US marketing rights to a drug relating to the central nervous system. It also acquired the US rights to a drug from Nasdaq-quoted BioSante Pharmaceuticals.
Latest accounts for Azur show that it made an operating loss of $3.3 million in 2008, compared to a deficit of $7.2 million.
Its net revenues more than doubled to $56.8 million. The company spent $4.2 million on research and development.
Azur previously raised over €75 million in two fundraising rounds, principally through Davy’s private clients, many of whom could probably do with a shot of Prialt given how some of their investments tanked over the past 12 to 18 months.
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