Company gains manufacturing capabilities and marketing rights in Australia and New Zealand.

HalcyGen Pharmaceuticals is buying Hospira’s oral drug formulation business, Mayne Pharma International (MPI; formerly FH Faulding). The acquisition includes land in south Australia, buildings, inventory, plant, and equipment as well as employees, ongoing contracts, and IP.

Hospira acquired MPI in 2007 when it bought Mayne Pharma Ltd. for $15 million and an earnings share arrangement. The company says that since the acquisition, MPI has acted largely independently from Hospira’s global hospital products business.

In 2007, HalcyGen signed a global exclusive license agreement with MPI for product development and marketing rights to SUB-Itraconazole, an antifungal agent. HalcyGen says SUBA-Itraconazole is now moving closer to registration, and it has decided to acquire MPI to gain manufacturing rights to the drug and also marketing rights in Australia and New Zealand.

Moreover, HalcyGen expects to receive revenues of $63.2 million from MPI’s portfolio of pharmaceutical drug sales during calendar year 2009. The acquisition of MPI will be largely non-dilutive, as it is being implemented through a $10 million National Australia Bank loan, supplemented by a two-phase, $9 million share placement.

SUBA-itraconazole is a super-bioavailable formulation of the synthetic broad-spectrum antifungal itraconazole, which HalcyGen claims achieves similar blood concentrations of the active compound at just half the dose of a leading formulation.  The company says that global sales of Johnson & Johnson’s branded itraconazole, Sporanox, and generic itraconazole formulations are in excess of $600 million.

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