Kedrion Biopharma Goes Shopping in North America

Latest acquisition is part of global growth strategy

LUCCA, Italy, July 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Kedrion Biopharma, one of the world's leading biopharmaceutical companies, is strengthening its product portfolio and its presence in North America with a new set of corporate acquisitions.

The Italian company has announced an important Share Purchase Agreement with Liminal BioSciences Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company listed on the Nasdaq Global Market. The agreement is for the purchase  of Prometic Bioproduction Inc, a production plant in Québec (the "First Closing"), and Prometic Biotherapeutics Inc, which  holds the biological license application for an FDA-approved drug to treat Plasminogen Deficiency type 1 (Hypoplasminogenemia), a rare systemic disease (the "Second Closing").

The closing of the various deals will be subject to the fulfilment of certain customary conditions related to the transactions. When all conditions have been met, Kedrion Biopharma will own the rights to the FDA-approved drug.

Paolo Marcucci, Chairman of Kedrion, said the acquisition "enhances our global footprint and gives us a chance to help patients across the United States who suffer from this rare disease. We are very pleased to welcome more than 135 employees to our group, and to build on our existing success in the US market, which today represents about forty percent of our group revenues of more than US 800M Dollars."

The new agreement with Liminal comes just weeks after Kedrion completed a successful round of refinancing in Dublin, where international investors snapped up more than 400M Euros of Kedrion bonds in a private placement. Bankers BNP Paribas and J.P. Morgan AG acted as joint physical bookrunners and joint global coordinators in connection with the offering, and Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A., Mediobanca - Banca di Credito Finanziario S.p.A., Natixis and UniCredit Bank AG served as joint bookrunners.

Mr. Marcucci said he was very pleased with recent developments. He called the bond placement "a sign of market confidence in Kedrion". He said the new corporate acquisition "represents an important step toward our company's international growth strategy."

"As one of the world's leading plasma-derived biopharma companies, we are committed to cutting edge medical research," Mr. Marcucci added. He cited the on-going development by Kedrion and its partner Kamada Ltd. of a new Immunoglobulin for treating Covid-19, which are in clinical trials in Israel.

Kedrion is headquartered in Tuscany with more than 2,500 employees worldwide, it has a commercial presence in 100 countries and has manufacturing plants in Italy, Hungary and the United States. Its subsidiary KEDPLASMA operates plasma collection centers in North America.