Piedmont Animal Health, which develops, licenses and markets animal-health therapeutics with a focus on major companion animal categories, has landed an equity investment from Japan-based Sumitomo’s Life Science Division.
Piedmont’ product revenue is projected to reach $175 million a year by 2020. The company holds 44 patents with another 67 pending.
The company, which is a twin of Piedmont Pharmaceuticals, has developed, launched, or marketed more than 15 products for dogs, cats, and horses.
The amount of the funding was not disclosed, but the Greensboro firm describes it as “strategic.”
As part of the deal, the two firms are expanding an existing technology collaboration agreement to cover Asia and other countries outside of Japan.
Sumitomo will now represent Piedmont’s product development pipeline in Asia.
“Piedmont has several ground-breaking products in development that target key therapeutic areas in companion animal health,” said Yasunori Ishibashi, general manager of Sumitomo Animal Health Science Department, in the announcement.
“Japanese companies are very interested in accessing products from the U.S., but they need help from a global organization that understands their specific needs. Sumitomo is a trusted name in Japan, with a very long history in pharmaceuticals going back to our original founder over 400 years ago.”
Roland Johnson, chairman and chief executive officer of Piedmont Animal Health, pointed out his company and Sumitomo have worked together for several years.
“Japanese companies have long been innovators in discovering many of the most important anti-parasiticide molecules used around the world,” Johnson said. “In our careers, our team members have had the fortunate opportunity to turn many of these molecules into top-selling medications such as heartworm disease preventatives for companion animals. We look forward to accessing future new molecules coming from Sumitomo’s Japanese partner relationships.”
Piedmont is no stranger to worker with larger biotech firms. NC Biotech writer Barry Teater reported recently that the 17-year-old company sold a drug-delivery platform to Bayer HealthCare Animal Health, which uses it in two products for dogs: Advantus, an oral flea medicine, and Quellin, a pain reliever and anti-inflammatory.
