Sep. 4--Cornerstone Therapeutics, which this month is adding two products that generated $46 million in annual sales last year, is on the prowl for other acquisitions.

"Our strategy is that we have an infrastructure that we can leverage," said David Price, the company's chief financial officer. That infrastructure includes its 100-person sales force.

"To the extent that we can provide more products for that sales force, then each call they make they have more opportunity to make a sale," Price said.

On Thursday, Cornerstone received bankruptcy court approval to acquire the antibiotic Factive, which last year generated $16 million in sales, from Oscient Pharmaceuticals.

Oscient, based in Massachusetts, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July.

CEO Craig Collard said Factive sales have a lot of upside. Sales reached nearly $30 million in 2007 but faded last year because Oscient's financial woes prevented it from promoting the drug.

Cornerstone agreed to acquire Factive in July. The deal is expected to close in the next few business days.

On Sept. 1, Cornerstone closed on the U.S. rights to Curosurf, used to treat a lung ailment that afflicts premature infants. It obtained the rights to Curosurf, which generated more than $30 million in U.S. sales last year, as part of a deal announced in May in which Italian drug company Chiesi Farmaceutici took a 51 percent ownership stake in Cornerstone.

Cornerstone, which has 140 employees, was created last year when Cary's Cornerstone BioPharma acquired Critical Therapeutics, a Boston biotechnology company. The company now has 10 job openings in Cary and recently agreed to lease an extra 7,000 square feet of space at its offices near Tryon Road, giving it 30,000 square feet altogether.

The publicly traded company posted a profit of $1.7 million on sales of $25 million in the second quarter.

Cornerstone previously projected that it would generate $95 million in revenue this year -- a number that doesn't include Factive and Curosurf sales.

The company plans to update its guidance when it releases its third-quarter results in November.

Shares closed Thursday at $7.07, up 27 cents. The company's shares fetched less than $3 at the beginning of the year and rose as high as $11.54 at the end of June.

david.ranii@ newsobserver .com or 919-829-4877

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