Recipharm Venture Fund AB has together with Östersjöstiftelsen and Praktikerinvest made a joint investment of SEK 28 million (~$3.31 mn) in Pharmanest AB. Recipharm’s part of the investment is SEK 8 million (~$1mn). At the same time, Karolinska Development AB and its co-investor KCIF have agreed to sell their shares in Pharmanest to the three investors in exchange for an earn out arrangement on future revenues. After completion of the transaction Recipharm will hold approximately 25% of the shares of Pharmanest.

Recipharm has since 2011 supported Pharmanest in its development of SHACT, an innovative topical pharmaceutical product for pain relief in conjunction with insertion of IUDs (intra uterine devices). With this investment Pharmanest will have sufficient funding to move forward towards its next important milestone, the submission of an application for regulatory approval in Europe for its first product candidate. Recipharm will receive pre-commercial revenues by providing Pharmanest with technical transfer and scale up services for future commercial manufacturing in its Karlskoga facility in Sweden.

“We are very pleased to have reached an agreement with our co-investors and Karolinska Development to secure sufficient funding for Pharmanest,” said Carl-Johan Spak, executive vice president, development and technology, Recipharm. “We are convinced that Pharmanest with its product SHACT will be able to help a huge amount of women with proper pain relief where there is no good alternative today. We do believe that our technical capabilities will also be very helpful in the further development of the product and we are looking forward to manufacturing the product in commercial volumes upon regulatory approval.”