Stratus Media Group has announced today the acquisition, through merger, of two biotechnology companies, Paloma Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and VasculoMedics, Inc. With these acquisitions, Stratus, which will be renamed RestorGenex, plans to create a pharmaceutical company with an initial focus on dermatology, ocular diseases and women’s health. The merger agreements were approved by the boards of directors of all companies and are expected to close following the satisfaction of certain closing conditions.

Paloma Pharmaceuticals brings to RestorGenex an integrated design platform technology to develop drugs that treat a number of indications. In addition, through the merger with VasculoMedics, RestorGenex will gain an epigenetic platform company utilizing computational design to create small molecule drugs inhibiting or stimulating the binding of zinc-finger transcription factor to their cognate DNA.

As part of the transaction, Paloma Founder and Chief Executive Officer, David Sherris, Ph.D., will join the RestorGenex board of directors and will serve as Chief Scientific Officer of RestorGenex, and President of the Paloma and VasculoMedics divisions of the company.

“We are excited to debut RestorGenex as a newly integrated biotechnology company, combining several impressive platforms and technologies to treat patients in a number of indications with unmet medical needs,” said Sol J. Barer, chairman of the board of RestorGenex.