Pharma services group Ergomed (LON:ERGO) is beefing up the products side of its business with the acquisition of Haemostatix for up to £28mln.
Haemostatix has developed a platform that uses synthetic peptide-based haemostats to halt bleeding in and after operations.
A US$2.5bn market, its two lead products are PeproStat, liquid haemostat that is applied to wounds to control bleeding during surgery
The other product, ReadyFlow, at the late pre-clinical stage, is a blood-free transparent haemostatic gel that can be applied to irregular bleeds. It will compete with existing dry products that are based on blood, take time to act and require preparation.
Peprostat is expected to start a phase II trial next year and ReadyFlow move into phase I in 2018.
Ergomed will pay an initial consideration of £8mln with milestone and sales based payments of up to £20mln.
It is raising £9mln at 140p to help fund the deal, though there is an option for this to rise to £13mln if demand warrants.
Miroslav Reljanovic, Ergomed’s chief executive said: "The Haemostatix acquisition provides an opportunity to advance the co-development part of our growth strategy through the development of our first wholly-owned development programme.
"We have confidence from the current pre-clinical and clinical data that the Haemostatix technology works as an effective haemostat.
"This, combined with the rapid development and attractive market size, means the acquisition offers great upside potential for Ergomed."