Nabi shares up on sale of drug to Irish firm
Shares of Nabi Biopharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: NABI) climbed in after-hours trading today on news of the firm’s plans to sell its Aloprim for Injection product to Ireland’s Bioniche Teoranta for $3.7 million.
Boca Raton, Fla.-based Nabi will receive $1.3 million when the deal closes sometime in the second quarter, and another $1 million at the end of 2008.
Nabi’s stock rose $0.35, or 6.3%, to $5.88 late today on the news. It has traded between $4.56 (on July 27, 2006) and $7.36 (on Nov. 22, 2006) in the past year.
Aloprim treats chemotherapy-induced hyperuricemia (a high level of uric acid in the blood).
In 1999, Nabi Biopharmaceuticals acquired U.S. distribution rights to Aloprim from Catalytica Pharmaceuticals on a profit sharing basis. Nabi then bought exclusive, full rights to the treatment from DSM Pharmaceuticals for a reported $1.8 million in 2004.
Dr. Leslie Hudson, Nabi’s interim president and CEO, said today in a written statement that it became clear to the company that Aloprim was no longer a strategic component of its product portfolio when it recently decided to form two strategic business units -- Nabi Biologics and Nabi Pharmaceuticals.
In September 2006, Nabi announced it had engaged a securities firm to explore strategic alternatives, including a possible merger or asset sale.
In October, Nabi said it had agreed to also sell PhosLo, which treats high phosphate levels in people with kidney failure, to a U.S. subsidiary of Fresenius Medical Care for $150 million.
