NEW YORK, Aug. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Paul Royalty Fund II, L.P. (Paul Royalty), an affiliate of Paul Capital Partners, is pleased to announce the purchase, subject to the successful completion of the proposed business combination between Aventis and Sanofi-Synthelabo (Sanofi), from Aventis of its royalty rights relating to U.S. sales of Estorra(TM). In exchange for Aventis’ Estorra royalty rights, Paul Royalty will provide Aventis with fixed and milestone payments totaling up to $115 million after U.S. commercial launch of Estorra. Estorra is being developed and will be marketed by Sepracor Inc. (Sepracor) for the treatment of insomnia and is currently under review for approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
On July 15, 2004, Sepracor announced that the FDA had accepted the resubmission of the New Drug Application for Estorra and had begun its review of the resubmission. The FDA review is expected to be completed within six months of the June 16, 2004 resubmission date.
The U.S. market for prescription sleep products, not including off-label use of central nervous system agents not indicated for the treatment of insomnia, was approximately $1.8 billion in 2003 and is expected to exceed $3 billion by 2010. According to the National Institutes of Health, insomnia affects more than 50 million Americans.
About Paul Capital Partners and Paul Royalty
Paul Capital Partners manages more than $4 billion in capital across three investment fund programs: 1) healthcare royalty and revenue interests, 2) secondary private equity, and 3) venture capital fund-of-funds. The Paul Royalty funds manage $1 billion in capital and are the leading provider of healthcare royalty and revenue interest-based financing to life science companies. The Paul Royalty funds have committed approximately $500 million dollars in more than 20 investments, in the U.S. and Europe, since 1998. For more information, please visit http://www.paulcapital.com.
Estorra(TM) is a trademark of Sepracor Inc.
CONTACT:
For Paul Royalty:
Dr. Walter Flamenbaum, Managing Partner
(646) 264-1116
wflamenbaum@paulcap.com
SOURCE Paul Capital Partners
Web Site: http://www.paulcap.com
