Bioxyne (ASX: BXN) has revealed its plans to acquire sales and distribution business VITALITY, a marketing distributor of high value medical devices in Australia and other key Southeast Asia regions.
Following the news today the company was granted a trading halt by the ASX to finalise an underwritten share placement to assist in funding the deal.
Bioxyne’s major shareholder, Phillip Asset Management, is proposing to invest up to $2.5 million in the company at various stages of the transaction.
The company plans to satisfy the consideration of the acquisition via the issue of $3.5 million worth of Bioxyne shares.
The proposed acquisition of VITALITY is considered to be a material milestone for Bioxyne, which will gain a scalable business model with the opportunity to expand into key markets.
The company will also gain key management with a demonstrated track record of success in the Australian biotech sector, to manage VITALITY and join the Bioxyne board.
A key focus of VITALITY is the chronic heart failure and diabetes markets in Australia and core markets in Asia – namely Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.
VITALITY also has plans in place to expand both the portfolio of products and the distribution footprint across the Asia-Pacific region.
The acquisition will add to Bioxyne’s portfolio initial products targeting chronic heart failure and type-2 diabetes.
Optimizer® III was developed by Impulse Dynamics for the treatment of patients with chronic heart failure.
About 26 million people globally suffer from chronic heart failure, of which around 2 million are located in Australia and the core markets.
Early stages (I and II) of chronic heart failure can usually be treated through lifestyle intervention or pharmaceuticals, but later stages (III and IV) are treated with cardiac defibrillators, biventricular pacemakers, left ventricular assist devices and heart transplants.
Optimizer® III provides a paradigm shift for later stage patients, working to remodel the heart and improve cardiac performance.
The Diabetes Improvement And Metabolic Normalization Device – or the “DIAMOND” device – was developed by Metacure for the treatment of patients with type-2 diabetes.
The DIAMOND device was granted the CE mark in 2007, approved by Australia’s Therapeutics Good Administration in April 2012 and is ready to be launched commercially in Australia.
DIAMOND is a patented implantable gastric stimulator that detects food intake into the stomach and electrically stimulates the antral stomach muscles to increase stomach contractility.
This stimulation is believed to result in the activation of neuro-hormonal activity regulating glucose, insulin, glucagon, satiety and blood pressure similar to those activated by GLP-1 and other gastrointestinal hormones.
Both the Optimizer® III and the DIAMOND devices have been approved (CE marked) in Europe.
The trading halt will last until the earlier of an announcement being made available to the market, or the opening of trade on Wednesday 20 February.
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