Further US investment in AFT Pharmaceuticals

Further US investment in AFT Pharmaceuticals to advance international growth

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, Maxigesic, 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.

ENDS

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