Grünenthal Group announced the acquisition of Adhesys Medical

10-Apr-2017 - Germany

The acquisition of Adhesys Medical and its highly innovative pipeline of surgical sealants, together with the underlying technology platform, allows Gruenenthal to tap into the global $1 billion surgical sealants market - This contributes to Gruenenthal's ambition to reach EUR2 billion in annual sales by bringing four to five innovative new products to market in areas of high unmet medical need - The acquisition diversifies Gruenenthal's current portfolio beyond NCEs in pain, gout and inflammation.

The Gruenenthal Group today announced the acquisition of Adhesys Medical GmbH and its US-based affiliate Adhesys Medical Inc., a Medical Device Startup company focused on the development of adhesives used in surgery. Through this acquisition, Gruenenthal has obtained the worldwide development and commercialization rights of an innovative pipeline of surgical sealants together with the underlying technology platform. The first innovative topical skin adhesive is expected to receive European-wide CE Marketing Certification within the next 12 months.

"Through this transaction, we are further executing our strategy to diversify our portfolio and expand beyond the NCE developments that are typical in pain, gout and inflammation. We recently created a new Innovation Unit focusing on the development of Devices and Technologies for our customers. Medical devices are usually faster, cheaper and more predictive in their development than NCEs, allowing us to diversify the risk profile of our portfolio. This will help Gruenenthal's ambition to deliver four to five innovative products by 2022 and become a EUR2 billion company," said Gabriel Baertschi, CEO of the Gruenenthal Group. "These highly innovative wound sealants not only have the potential to help surgeons seal external wounds, but also the more difficult wet wounds during cardiac and gastrointestinal surgery. This allows us to tap into the global $1 billion surgical sealants market."

"We believe that such innovative surgical glues may present a true alternative to traditional techniques in closing wounds during or after surgery - both on the skin as well as within the body," comments Klaus-Dieter Langner, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of the Gruenenthal Group. "This platform enables next generation wound closure in unprecedented areas of surgery and addresses significant unmet medical needs. We are very much looking forward to further developing the assets technologically as well as clinically, and advancing this promising technology platform further together with the experienced and highly motivated colleagues from Adhesys Medical", Langner concludes.

The polyurethane-based technology is unique as it comes with an unmet combination of features such as bonding strength, fast sealing and flexibility. The products based on this technology may therefore serve a wide variety of surgical procedures, including sealing under wet conditions.

"We are very proud of what our team of employees, partners and investors has accomplished in driving our lead product from preclinical phase to CE-marking submission. Together with Gruenenthal, we are looking forward to bringing the first product to market soon, and to further develop the Adhesys Medical sealants pipeline over the next years," said Marius Rosenberg, Founder and former CEO of Adhesys Medical.

As a privately owned mid-sized pharmaceutical company, Gruenenthal has a long track-record of successful partnerships and acquisitions and wants to build on this success to grow its core business in pain, gout and inflammation as well as medical devices.

https://www.bionity.com/en/news/162757/gruenenthal-group-announced-the-acquisition-of-adhesys-medical.html