TheraQuest Receives $3 Million in Equity Investment and Licensing Fees from Wonpung
Blue Bell, PA – December 18, 2007 – TheraQuest Biosciences, Inc., a clinical-stage pain management company announced that it has completed a $3 million licensing and equity investment transaction with Wonpung Mulsan Co., LTD.
Najib Babul, PharmD, President and Chief Executive Officer of TheraQuest stated, "We are pleased to have completed this licensing and equity transaction with Wonpung. The funds from this transaction, combined with prior investments in the form of convertible debt of $1.7 million from the founding investors, $500,000 from BioAdvance, the Biotechnology Greenhouse of Southeastern Pennsylvania and $475,000 from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP) will be used to progress the development and testing of our analgesic portfolio.”
Doosik Yi, MBA, President of Wonpung noted, “We have decided to in-license a portfolio of pain products and take an equity stake in TheraQuest for several reasons. First, TheraQuest has an attractive and diversified portfolio of proprietary pain products for the treatment of pain, which is an area of high unmet need. Second, its management team has considerable expertise in the development of therapies for pain management. Finally, TheraQuest’s 505[b][2] business model significantly reduces the clinical and regulatory risk of drug development.”
Transaction Highlights
- Wonpung has invested $1.5 million for an approximately 10% equity stake in TheraQuest and has an option to invest a further $1.5 million in 2008 under the same terms.
- Wonpung has made an upfront $1.5 million payment and agreed to unspecified royalties for the licensing rights in Asia for two products TheraQuest is currently developing. It has also acquired the right of first refusal for Asian licensing for an additional five products TheraQuest may develop in the future, on terms to be negotiated at a later date.
- Wonpung will be responsible for any required localization studies and all regulatory filings in Asian countries where it desires to commercialize the licensed products.
About TheraQuest
TheraQuest Biosciences, Inc. (www.theraquestinc.com) is a private, clinical-stage pain management company building a diversified portfolio of pharmaceutical products to address a critical area of unmet medical need. Despite their limitations, current treatments for acute and chronic pain yield worldwide sales in excess of $30 billion. The TheraQuest team has contributed to the development of numerous analgesics approved in the U.S. over the past 20 years. TheraQuest’s strategy is to use its expertise to identify, develop and commercialize product candidates with strong market potential that have lower development costs and reduced regulatory risk than new chemical entities. TheraQuest is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania.
TheraQuest is funded in part by BioAdvance, the Biotechnology Greenhouse of Southeastern Pennsylvania and Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania.