Italy's Chiesi Farmaceutici will buy a 51 percent stake in Cornerstone Therapeutics, a respiratory drug developer, in a deal valued at $70 million.
Investors quickly signalled their disapproval of the terms, sending Cornerstone's stock down more than 18 percent on the news.
Chiese will buy 11.9 million common shares of Cornerstone for $5.50 plus another 1.6 million shares for the same price from Cornerstone CEO Craig Collard and EVP Steven Lutz. Cornerstone gets $15.5 million in cash plus the exclusive rights to Chiesi's drug Curosurf in the U.S. for the next 10 years. Cornerstone Therapeutics was created last fall from the merger of Cornerstone BioPharma and Critical Therapeutics.
"Our investment in Cornerstone demonstrates our confidence in their ability to continue growing their business in an efficient and strategic manner," said Alberto Chiesi, Chiesi's CEO. "We believe this agreement has the potential to meaningfully increase our footprint in the U.S., the world's largest pharmaceutical market."
- check out Cornerstone's release
- read the report from the Triangle Business Journal