Azur Pharma completes $48M financing and FazaClo buy

Ireland's Azur Pharma says it has successfully completed a private placement of ordinary shares for $48.0 million. The new share issuance represents 28% of the firm's outstanding share capital. The private placement was arranged through Davy Corporate Finance.

Seamus Mulligan, chief executive of Azur, stated: "we are pleased to announce the successful completion of our offering and the closing of the acquisition of FazaClo. The offering leaves us with strong cash resources after funding the acquisition. We have now raised in excess of $100.0 million of equity since our formation in mid 2005."

Mr Mulligan further commented: "we have made good progress in growing our business since we founded the company two years ago. FazaClo (clozapine) is our third acquisition having previously purchased Gastrocrom (cromolyn sodium) and Pharmelle in January 2006 and February 2007, respectively. We have established a full commercial infrastructure in the USA with growing revenues and 90 sales representatives covering central nervous system and urology/women's health. The offering provides us with the cash resources to acquire further products and pipeline assets." Azur bought Arizona, USA-based Pharmelle for 20.0 million euros ($27.6 million).