Medicure announced it and its wholly owned Mauritius subsidiary have exercised their option to acquire additional interests in Apicore Inc. and Apicore LLC from Apicore's founding shareholders. The option exercise allows for the acquisition of all of the shares of Apicore Inc. and Apicore LLC held by the founding shareholders (representing approximately 32% of the fully diluted ownership of Apicore) for US$24.5 million. This acquisition brings Medicure's ownership in Apicore Inc. to approximately 98% (94% on a fully diluted basis). Medicure expects to close the acquisition by July 14, 2017.
Additionally, Apicore has repaid the US$9.8 million secured loan previously provided to Apicore by Medicure that was announced on January 9, 2017.
Medicure's initial ownership interest and option rights in Apicore were obtained for its lead role in structuring and participating in a majority interest purchase and financing of Apicore that occurred on July 3, 2014. Medicure acquired a majority interest in Apicore through the exercise of its option rights on December 1, 2016.
Apicore has provided a US$14.8 million loan to Medicure bearing interest at 12% per annum with a term of three years. These funds were obtained from Apicore's current business which includes API sales, ANDA development partnership payments, and royalty and upfront payments from ANDA commercial partnerships. The loan proceeds will be used by Medicure to help satisfy the purchase price under the option exercise.