(By Balaseshan) Apricus Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ:APRI), a pharmaceutical research and development company, said it has closed its agreement to own Finesco-Scomedica.
Finesco is the French parent and holding company of Scomedica, which is a French pharmaceutical sales and marketing company. Finesco and Scomedica will operate as wholly-owned subsidiaries of Apricus Biosciences.
Finesco's existing shareholders contributed to Apricus Biosciences 100% of the outstanding common stock of Finesco in exchange for 2.59 million newly issued shares of Apricus Biosciences common stock valued at $8.8 million at the closing.
Additional, newly issued shares worth about $2.3 million are due in the first quarter of 2013 if Scomedica achieves certain revenue milestones during 2012.
Apricus Biosciences' Chief Executive Bassam Damaj said the closing of this transaction marks an important milestone for Apricus Bio and its long-term commercial strategy in Europe.
Apricus expects to explore registration and/or commercialization of its lead product Vitaros, which is used for the treatment of erectile dysfunction.
The company also anticipates to explore registration and/or commercialization of its other pipeline products, including Granisol, NitroMist, Femprox and MycoVa, in the French market.
Apricus Biosciences would also use this platform to expand its commercial operations into all of Europe, building a revenue base that, the company expects, would create significant value for its shareholders over the long-term.
Granisol is a proprietary formulation of granisetron indicated for the prevention of nausea and vomiting associated with initial and repeat courses of emetogenic cancer therapy. Femprox is a topical cream for the treatment of female sexual arousal disorder. MycoVa is a medicinal nail lacquer for the treatment of onychomycosis.
NitroMist is a nitrate vasodilator indicated for acute relief of an attack or acute prophylaxis of angina pectoris (chest pain) due to coronary artery disease (narrowing of the blood vessels that supply blood to the heart).
APRI is trading up 0.62% at $3.32 on Friday. The stock has been trading between $2.25 and $5.94 for the past 52 weeks.