NEW YORK—Pfizer Inc. has announced the establishment of an agreement by which it will acquire privately held InnoPharma, Inc., a pharmaceutical development company with a focus on complex generic and innovative specialty pharmaceutical products in injectable and ophthalmic dosage forms. Per the terms of the agreement, Pfizer will acquire InnoPharma for an upfront cash payment of $225 million, with the potential for an additional up to $135 million of contingent milestone payments. The closing of the transaction is subject to U.S. regulatory approval, and the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.
“InnoPharma has emerged as a strong development company over the years, with a portfolio of complex and differentiated products that provide value and options to patients and payors, and has an excellent team that has executed on this business model so successfully,” Dr. Navneet Puri, president and CEO of InnoPharma, said in a press release. “We are very pleased to continue to provide this value as part of Pfizer, which has demonstrated its leadership within the pharmaceutical industry and a focus on improving patient health.”
As noted on the company’s website, InnoPharma’s generic program focuses on the development of compounds with one or more of the following characteristics: “Difficult to develop for technical and scientific reasons, including molecules with solubility, stability, characterization and synthesis complexities; niche area of use; complicated manufacturing; or complicated bio-equivalency or clinical studies,” such as with cancer or central nervous system disorders. The company’s portfolio currently includes 10 generic products with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, and its pipeline contains 19 products that have been filed with the FDA and another 30 injectable and ophthalmic products under development. InnoPharma was established in 2005, with a comprehensive research and development facility based in Piscataway, N.J.
“Today’s announcement is an important milestone as we continue to look for innovative growth opportunities for our sterile injectables portfolio, which will increase to seventy three products with this acquisition,” John Young, group president of Pfizer Global Established Pharma, commented in a statement about the deal. “InnoPharma’s technical capabilities in bringing complex generics to market, coupled with its strong talent and product pipeline, build on our efforts to develop and commercialize critically important medicines for the patients who need them.”
Pfizer enlisted Kaye Scholer LLP as its legal advisor for the transaction. InnoPharma brought on J.P. Morgan as its financial advisor, with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP serving as its legal advisor.
