Leading Pharma, LLC, a Fairfield, NJ-based privately-owned generic pharmaceutical company that manufactures, markets, and distributes products to drug chains, wholesalers, and other channels, announced Friday that on December 28, 2017 it completed a financing transaction for $40 million of growth capital.

The transaction was led by Signet Healthcare Partners in addition to Crestline Investors with other investors comprised of Cane Investment Partners and existing Leading Pharma members.

Concurrently, Nikhil Puri, managing director at Signet Healthcare Partners, and Chris Semple, managing director at Crestline Investors, will join the board of directors of Leading Pharma’s parent company. The growth capital will be used to support Leading Pharma’s research and development (R&D) investments in expanding the company’s diverse pipeline of generic products and to repay existing indebtedness.

“This investment allows us to accelerate the development of our robust pipeline to build a more comprehensive product portfolio,” Ronald Gold, co-founder and chief executive officer of Leading Pharma, said in a press statement.”

Since the acquisition of Excellium Pharmaceutical, Inc. in 2014, Leading Pharma has evolved from exclusively outsourcing product development work into a vertically integrated generic pharmaceutical company with internal R&D capabilities. The company operates a 53,000 square foot manufacturing plant dedicated to oral solid pharmaceuticals. 

Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP acted as legal counsel for Leading Pharma and Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP acted as legal counsel for Crestline and Signet. Atigun Capital Partners provided consulting support to Leading Pharma and the investors during the transaction.

(Source: Leading Pharma, LLC via PR Newswire)