Under the deal, Sothema will be responsible for marketing and selling Zestra and its high viscosity water-based lubricant Zestra Glide in Middle East (Excluding Lebanon and Israel), North Africa and West Africa.
The North African countries include Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya; the Middle Eastern countries are Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE); and the West African countries include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo (collectively the Territory).
The deal will see Innovus secure an upfront payment and is eligible to receive about $171.25m upon and subject to the achievement of sales milestones based on cumulative supplied units of the licensed products in the territory plus a pre-negotiated transfer price per unit.
Innovus Pharma president and chief executive officer Bassam Damaj said the company is happy about this major international collaboration with Sothema and is seeking to expand the reach of its products in the Middle East, North Africa and West Africa.
"This is an important milestone in our strategy to find partners with expert sales forces that will promote and detail our product to the specialty physicians treating our target patient populations, namely gynaecologists," Damaj said.
"With our products commercially available in 28 countries out of our goal of having the products in a minimum of 40 countries by the end of 2015."