Source – Almirall
Almirall has completed a €200 million share capital issue, some of which will be used to finalize pipeline-boosting operations, such as bolt-on acquisitions and in-licensing arrangements, that the company claims are already being examined.
The Gallardo family, who owns the majority of the dermatological specialty, took part in the offering, boosting their position slightly to 60.14% of the company’s share capital.
The investment comes after a fairly tumultuous time for Almirall, which parted ways with its former chief executive Gianfranco Nazzi in November and appointed board chairman Carlos Gallardo to fill the position temporarily.
Gallardo would remain in the position for a long length of time, and the hunt for a new CEO had been put on hold, it was announced earlier this year.
After joining the firm from Teva with considerable excitement in 2022, Nazzi had only been in charge for around 18 months when he abruptly resigned to seek other chances. There have been significant leadership changes over the past year or so since Gallardo succeeded his father Jorge in the position of chairman in May 2022.
Almirall has been working to expand its pipeline over the past few years. Its most significant recent transaction was a $507 million licensing agreement with China’s Simcere Pharma in September, which brought in an IL-2 drug with potential for use in the treatment of autoimmune diseases.
During Nazzi’s brief tenure, the pharmaceutical company also agreed to a deal with Ablexis to use its antibody development platform in therapeutics, licenced a programme running at France’s Inserm research institute looking at treatments for vitiligo, and signed an R&D alliance with Evotec to find new drug targets in inflammatory skin diseases and skin cancers.
