Recipharm Venture Fund AB, the venture-capital arm of the Jordboro-Sweden-headquartered contract development and manufacturing organization, Recipharm, has with the research institute, Östersjöstiftelsen (The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies) and Praktikerinvest (an investment company) made a joint investment of SEK 28 million ($3.3 million) in Pharmanest AB, a Stockholm-based pharmaceutical company developing topical formulations applied in the cervix and uterus using applicators developed by Pharmanest. Pharmanest’s first product candidate is Shact, a topical pharmaceutical product for pain relief used in conjunction with insertion of intra uterine devices.

Recipharm's part of the investment is SEK 8 million ($942,000). At the same time, Karolinska Development AB and KFIC, its co-investor and a jointly owned holding company between the European Investment Fund and Karolinska Development, 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 supported Pharmanest since 2011 in its development of Shact. With this investment, Pharmanest will have sufficient funding to move forward toward submission of an application for regulatory approval in Europe. 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.

Source: Recipharm and Karolinska Development