Specialty Australasian pharmaceutical sales and development company, AFT Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AFT), has finalised a follow-on equity capital raise with CRG (formerly Capital Royalty L.P.), Atkinson family, AFT board members, and a group of specialist pharma investors from the United States.
The details of the financing are as follows:
An additional US$7.5M in equity has been invested in AFT.
AFT’s founders, Atkinson Family interests, will retain almost 87% ownership of the company going forward. CRG will increase its existing shareholding to almost 9%.
Additional investment from the AFT board and specialist USA based pharmaceutical experts rounded out the equity raise which was oversubscribed based on significant demand from the USA.
“We are really pleased to see strong support from the United States,” said Dr Hartley Atkinson, Founder and CEO of AFT. “The US is widely recognised as the gold standard when it comes to pharmaceuticals. This is why the follow-on investment from CRG is especially pleasing as it’s a US-based investment expert in the health sciences field. To get this level of interest in an Australasian drug company is a big vote of confidence in AFT.”
“The additional investment from the Atkinson family and our board further reinforces internal support and belief in the future prospects for the business,” said Hartley Atkinson. “This new capital will be pivotal to maintaining momentum for our advanced R&D pipeline which is now starting to be commercialised in a number of countries around the world.”
While the business has focused on developing its R&D pipeline and putting in pace its licensing deals, it has also grown sales from NZ$66 to $76M in the last financial year. This was driven by continuing growth in Australian product sales, together with international sales and royalties from its portfolio of novel drugs licensed to overseas biopharma companies. Sales from AFT’s newly established affiliates in Singapore and Malaysia also contributed to sales growth. A number of product launches in the Middle East and Europe will add to existing sales during this financial year.
AFT has an extensive, growing development portfolio of patented drug combination and Orphan Drug products and a unique drug device for intranasal delivery of therapeutic agents.
AFT will use the proceeds of this financing to continue its R&D activities and to initiate first pilot manufacturing of its novel drug delivery technology. AFT is also launching its patented combination analgesic, in a number of territories around the world this financial year.
The company will also continue to out-license its prescription and over-the-counter products in distant regions/countries where it does not have an operating presence. “To date, we have out-licensing and distribution agreements around the world and building upon these arrangements is an ongoing key activity with a number of additional agreements under both due diligence and negotiation,” said Hartley Atkinson.
End of release
Background
AFT Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AFT)
AFT is a Pharmaceutical sales and development company with operations in Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore and out-licensing and distribution agreements around the world.
AFT has four key areas of product development; [1] Patented analgesic combinations; [2] Patented cold & flu combinations; [3] Orphan drugs and [4] Patented drug delivery devices.
It has successfully out-licensed the Maxigesic® product line to over 40 countries and, through these licenses, is well-positioned to tap into a global painkiller market worth US$11.9 billion last year. Maxigesic® was invented, developed and patented by AFT, a privately-owned Australasian pharmaceutical based in Sydney and Auckland. AFT has also development programs in cold & flu medicines under the trade name Maxiclear®, whose first clinical results were published in the world’s leading medical journal, The New England Journal of Medicine. Sales of cold and flu medicines around the world are at least US$1.3 billion in the pharmacy sector alone.
AFT has also advanced its novel drug delivery system to pilot scale manufacture and the initiation of registration studies to tap into a significant global opportunity.
AFT is a true success story: beginning with a $50,000 start-up investment in Dr Hartley Atkinson’s home garage in Auckland in 1997, AFT is now an originator of ground-breaking medicine with turnover over NZ$75.9 million. The company has numerous products listed on Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and New Zealand’s Pharmaceutical Schedule, sells medicines in public and private hospitals and OTC medicines across Australia, New Zealand and recently in Singapore and Malaysian public and private hospitals.
CRG
Founded in 2003, CRG (previously known as Capital Royalty L.P.) is a healthcare- focused investment firm with over $2 billion of assets under management that provides capital to healthcare companies primarily through structured debt and senior secured loans. CRG works across the spectrum of life science products and technologies and targets investment sizes ranging between $20 million and $200 million. The firm partners with commercial-stage healthcare companies to provide flexible financing solutions so they can achieve their growth objectives. CRG is headquartered in Houston, Texas with offices in Boulder, Colorado and New York City. For additional information, please visit www.crglp.com.
Contacts
AFT Pharmaceuticals Ltd
New Zealand: Ryan Malone, Ryan.Malone@dartpublicaffairs.co.nz
+64212055149
CRG
Nate Hukill President
+1-713-209-7371
nhukill@crglp.com
Mike Weinmann Managing Director
+1-212-716-0011
mweinmann@crglp.com
Disclaimer
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