Avista Capital Partners has acquired a majority interest in Vertical/Trigen Holdings, the owner of Vertical Pharmaceuticals and Trigen Laboratories. Avista is partnering with co-founders Steven Squashic, Kevin Hudy, and David Purdy, who will remain in place and retain a significant minority ownership stake in Vertical/Trigen.
Vertical/Trigen is a specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in the development, marketing, and distribution of both branded and generic prescription pharmaceuticals in the United States. Vertical, the segment of the company focused on branded pharmaceuticals, specializes in women’s health, pain management, and respiratory and allergy medications. Its brands include OB Complete, Corvite, ConZip, and Lorzone and are marketed by a dedicated national sales force. Trigen, the generic pharmaceutical arm of the company, markets over 70 formulations in the prenatal, hematinic (iron) supplement, and cough/cold remedy markets. The company is based in Sayreville, NJ (www.verticalpharma.com) (www.trigenlab.com).
“We believe Vertical/Trigen is a strong platform on which to build a diversified North American pharmaceuticals business. The company’s existing product footprint and development pipeline can be leveraged in combination with product acquisition and licensing opportunities to create a broader branded and generics company with a presence in a number of attractive therapeutic markets,” said David Burgstahler, Partner and President of Avista.
Upon closing of this acquisition, Brian Markison, a Healthcare Industry Executive at Avista, has joined the company’s Board of Directors as Executive Chairman. Mr. Markison has more than 30 years of operational, marketing, commercial development, and sales experience with international pharmaceutical companies. Most recently, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Fougera Pharmaceuticals, a dermatology-focused pharmaceuticals company that was spun off from Nycomed A/S in 2011 and sold to Sandoz, the generics division of Novartis, in July 2012. Prior to leading Fougera, Mr. Markison served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of King Pharmaceuticals before it was acquired by Pfizer.
“I am thrilled to be joining Vertical/Trigen as Executive Chairman. Having led other specialty pharmaceutical companies through various phases of development, I am very excited about the company’s potential to increase market share with existing products while pursuing attractive add-on opportunities to accelerate growth. I look forward to working with the Vertical/Trigen team to support these efforts,” said Mr. Markison.
Avista Capital Partners, with over $5 billion of capital under management, makes control or influential minority investments in growth-oriented energy, healthcare, communications & media, industrials, and consumer businesses. The firm was founded in 2005 and is based in New York with offices in Houston and London (www.avistacap.com).
© 2013 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 12-17-13
