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Release issued 1st November 2006
GRUPO URIACH and a group of four financial investors - INVERCARTERA (GRUPO CAIXA CATALUNYA), CAJA DUERO, HARMISH & MYTAROS and NAJETI CAPITAL - have closed an agreement by which the latter acquire a minority stake in URIACH’s R&D subsidiary PALAU PHARMA.
PALAU PHARMA is the spin-out of GRUPO URIACH’s R&D Unit. The new company inherits over 50 years of sustained commitment to pharmaceutical R&D within GRUPO URIACH.
GRUPO URIACH is Spain’s most successful domestic pharmaceutical company with respect to patent productivity. In recent years its R&D Unit has taken several drug candidates to the market. Examples are the antiplatelet agent
triflusal, the antifungal
flutrimazole and the antihistaminic
rupatadine.
The corporate vision behind this transaction is to turn URIACH´s R&D Unit into the leading biopharmaceutical company in Spain. PALAU PHARMA will strive to become an international leader in the discovery and development of drugs for the treatment of inflammatory and autoinmmune conditions.
PALAU PHARMA begins its activities as an up and running operation: it is a fully operational company from the start, with state-of-the-art infrastructure in place. Several development programs are under way. Four partnerships with leading pharmaceutical companies are also inherited by the company, including very valuable licensing agreements already signed with Organon (Holland) and Stiefel (USA). Finally, the management team, complete from the start, has a successful track record in developing commercially valuable drugs. Ignacio Faus has been appointed CEO of PALAU PHARMA.
The entry of the investors has been structured through a 40 million Euro private placement, which has been executed through a capital increase in PALAU PHARMA. This sum is intended to finance the development of the company’s internal R&D operations.
Headquartered in Palau-solità i Plegamans (Barcelona), PALAU PHARMA is born with a forward-looking approach oriented to growth. The company aims to be a reference within the nascent Spanish biotechnology community. PALAU PHARMA is committed to help in the consolidation of an avant-garde R&D effort in Spain.
Enrique Uriach, Executive President of GRUPO URIACH, considers that the entry of a group of investors as shareholders of PALAU PHARMA “represents a very important step in the Group´s strategy, because this reinforcement of its shareholder structure through the incorporation of financial partners will allow us to increase our resources, so that we can strengthen and accelerate our short and mid term R&D growth Plan, from now on through PALAU PHARMA.”
GRUPO URIACH has retained Fortis Bank as its exclusive financial advisor. The law firm of Garrigues has implemented the legal aspects of the transaction.
About GRUPO URIACH
GRUPO URIACH is a pharmaceutical group owned by the URIACH family. It is a vertically integrated group, with a successful track record in the development of novel pharmaceuticals. It is one of the leading Spanish domestic pharmaceutical companies in R&D productivity. The company continuosly strives to maintain the family and entrepeneurial spirit that goes back all the way to its beginnings in 1838.
GRUPO URIACH’s pharmaceutical business includes, besides its R&D activity, the manufacturing of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and finished products and the commercialization of both prescription, OTC and generic pharmaceuticals in the Spanish market through its dedicated salesforces. 2005 sales were in the order of 130 million Euros, the number of employees being around 900.
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