DougS.....is this the article you're thinking about...
Article published Oct 1, 2004
DNAPrint buying stake in drugmaker
By MARGARET ANN MIILLE
SARASOTA -- DNAPrint Genomics Inc. is tapping into a drug development pipeline by becoming the majority owner of a German pharmaceutical company.
DNAPrint announced this week that it has agreed to acquire 51.77 percent of Biofrontera AG, a company based in Keverkusen and Heidelberg. The money for the deal will come from the Dutchess Private Equity Fund, which will buy up to $35 million of DNAPrint's stock over two years.
DNAPrint has agreed to invest about $25 million during the same length of time in Biofrontera shares, representing a 51.77 percent equity interest.
"This is what I have been waiting for for the past four years, to reach this stage of legitimacy," said Tony Frudakis, the company's founder and chief science officer. "From the very beginning, we've wanted to become a drug company, not just a data company that makes neat genetic tests."
DNAPrint, which has developed genetic tests that genealogists and forensic experts use to determine a person's racial mix, said the Biofrontera deal will give DNAPrint access to drugs already under development and allow the two companies to share technology.
The focus will be on "theranostics," which blend genomics tests with drugs to yield the best results in specific groups of people.
Biofrontera's lead candidate for development is a drug called "BF-Derm1," which is in clinical trials for treating chronic itching and scratching. Frudakis said that drug so far has shown a 40 percent improvement when compared with a placebo in reducing clinical symptoms in all patients.
Biofrontera, which focuses on developing treatments for inflammation and central nervous system diseases, also is in the early stages of developing a drug to treat and prevent migraines.
DNAPrint said it will continue selling its ancestry tests, called DNAWitness when marketed to the forensics market and ANCESTRYbyDNA2.5 when sold to the public.
But it intends to wrap up its research and market diagnostic tests for determining what existing drugs work the best for certain patients.
"Most of our efforts in the future will focus on developing our pipeline of new drugs," Frudakis said.
The two companies plan to eventually seek out a manufacturer when their drugs reach the production stage.
DNAPrint said the agreement with Dutchess, a limited partnership based in Boston, was arranged by Athena Capital Partners Inc., a private merchant bank in Tampa.
Frudakis said the acquisition eventually should boost investor confidence and buying activity in his company's over-the-counter stock.
At the close of trading Thursday, shares were selling for 1.9 cents, down from 2.2 cents the previous day.
"Investors value data companies, basic science companies, much lower than they do pharmaceutical companies," Frudakis said. "The money in this business is in selling medicine."
