Knight Therapeutics Inc. is a Canadian public specialty

pharmaceutical A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and re ...

company based in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

that focuses on acquiring or in-licensing innovative pharmaceutical products for the Canadian and select international markets. It is listed on the

Toronto Stock Exchange The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; french: Bourse de Toronto) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in t ...

(symbol ), with a market capitalization of $1.02 billion as of August 2019.

History

In 1995, Jonathan Ross Goodman and Mark Beaudet founded Paladin Labs, the predecessor company to Knight Therapeutics. It launched an IPO in that year at $1.50 per share. In 2011, Goodman was seriously injured in a cycling accident, forcing him to temporarily relinquish the CEO role to Mark Beaudet. The accident caused serious traumatic brain injury, although Goodman has almost fully recovered. Also in 2011, Paladin offered to buy Afexa Life Sciences for $57 million, but was outbid by

Valeant Pharmaceuticals Bausch Health Companies Inc. (formerly Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc.) is a Canadian multinational specialty pharmaceutical company based in Laval, Quebec, Canada. It develops, manufactures and markets pharmaceutical products and ...

. However, it succeeded in acquiring Labopharm for $20 million. In 2014,

Endo Pharmaceuticals Endo International plc is an American Irish-domiciled generics and specialty branded pharmaceutical company that generated over 93% of its 2017 sales from the U.S. healthcare system. While Endo's management, operations, and customers are almost ...

, an American pharmaceutical company, acquired most of the assets of Paladin Labs for $3 billion, or $151 a share, a 100 times increase from its IPO price. As part of the transaction, Knight Therapeutics was spun-off to the shareholders of Paladin, with the rights to

Impavido Miltefosine, sold under the trade name Impavido among others, is a medication mainly used to treat leishmaniasis and free-living amoeba infections such as ''Naegleria fowleri'' and '' Balamuthia mandrillaris''. This includes the three forms of l ...

, a

leishmaniasis Leishmaniasis is a wide array of clinical manifestations caused by parasites of the trypanosome genus ''Leishmania''. It is generally spread through the bite of phlebotomine sandflies, ''Phlebotomus'' and ''Lutzomyia'', and occurs most freq ...

drug. It was also led by Jonathan Ross Goodman, and was in substantially the same business. In November 2016, it was rumored that Endo was considering selling Paladin back to Knight Therapeutics, for less than it initially paid for it.

Business

Knight Therapeutics, like Paladin Labs before it, focuses on marketing and licensing drugs from international drug makers for the Canada and Latin America. This involves getting

Health Canada Health Canada (HC; french: Santé Canada, SC)Health Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Health (). is the Structure of the Canadian federal government#Departments, with subsidiary unit ...

approval for new products, and selling them to Canadian customers. Knight is generally not involved in initial drug discovery or development. As of June 2020, the company commercializes dozens of innovative pharmaceuticals in Canada and 10 Latin American countries with a 700+ employees. Knight's main product portfolios cover Pain/Gastrointestinal, Ophthalmic, Women's Health and Oncology. Its marketed products are

Movantik Naloxegol (INN; PEGylated naloxol; trade names Movantik and Moventig) is a peripherally acting μ-opioid receptor antagonist developed by AstraZeneca, licensed from Nektar Therapeutics, for the treatment of opioid-induced constipation. It was a ...

for the treatment of opioid-induced constipation, Probuphine, a sub-dermal implant for opioid dependence,

for the treatment of leishmaniasis and Burinex for edema associated with congestive heart failure, cirrhosis of the liver and renal disease.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official Website
Companies based in Montreal Companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange Pharmaceutical companies of Canada