Austrian-based Sanochemia Pharmazeutika AG today announces in this ad-hoc disclosure that the company has withdrawn from its planned investment in Countervail Corp.
On 10 August 2007, the company announced that it intended to acquire around 40% of the capital stock of the US company Countervail Corp. through its US subsidiary Sanochemia Corp. (Westport, NJ). Sanochemia subsequently made available to Countervail Corp. capital in the amount of USD 560,000. Countervail Corp., a privately owned company, was established in order to protect the civil population and military from chemical and biological weapons, and regarded galantamine as having numerous possible uses in this context as a result of data on the substance published by the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB).
Countervail Corp. (Marlton, New Jersey) announced that it had acquired exclusive rights to develop and market galantamine as an antidote from the University of Maryland upon which basis Sanochemia and the remaining investors (Northstar Corp, Invesa Corp, and the University of Maryland, among others) expressed an interest in pursuing the development of galantamine. The plan was for Sanochemia to apply its pharmaceutical know-how of galantamine to synthesise this active ingredient at its Neufeld plant (Burgenland, Austria) and to take over the necessary galenic development of formulations for use in the treatment of cases involving nerve gas and insecticide poisoning.
The US patent applications filed jointly by the University of Maryland and the US Army proved, despite assurances to the contrary from UMB, to be difficult to secure since these obviously would have infringed on the patent rights of third parties. For this reason, Sanochemia has elected to no longer directly pursue such a high-risk investment and to only offer its services to Countervail as a supplier of the active ingredient.
The previously transferred amount of USD 560,000 intended for the investment has already been returned to Sanochemia by Countervail. Sanochemia currently has no plans to make available resources or capital other than production capacity.
For further information please contact:
Margarita Hoch Investor Relations
phone: +43 / 1 / 3191456 / 335 fax: +43 / 1 / 3191456/ 344
m.hoch(at)sanochemia.at