Archimedes Pharma Launched
Archimedes Pharma announced the formation of a new European specialty pharmaceutical company, Archimedes Pharma. Archimedes will build a European-focused, integrated company with its own sales and marketing operations in the major markets and a robust pipeline of late stage and development projects to fuel the commercial operation. Warburg Pincus, the global private equity firm, is the lead investor in Archimedes Pharma.
Richard de Souza, Chief Executive of Archimedes Pharma, said: "We have brought together a hugely experienced and entrepreneurial management team at Archimedes. Combined with the knowledge and resources of Warburg Pincus, we intend to rapidly build an international specialty pharmaceutical company across the UK and Europe. Our strategy is to grow our commercial presence through the acquisition of pharmaceutical companies or brands in Europe and through partnering with companies looking for a marketing presence in Europe. In parallel, we will develop our own pipeline of innovative near term products to support our commercial organisation. Warburg Pincus is fully behind our strategy and has committed to providing significant funding to allow us execute it successfully."
To drive the company in the medium term, Archimedes has completed its first acquisition, the nasal drug delivery assets of West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. Through the acquisition, Archimedes gains a development organisation with proprietary technologies for nasal drug delivery and a number of products in development, the first of these could be ready for launch in 2008. Under the agreement, West has transferred substantially all of its technology related drug delivery assets to Archimedes and will receive $7.1 million in cash and approximately 14% of the stock of the company. In addition, Warburg Pincus has invested $40 million in Archimedes to fund the development of products based on this proprietary nasal drug delivery technology.
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