SA drugs company quits Adelaide with multimillion-dollar payday
A pharmaceutical firm has found a buyer for its entire Australian business, more than a year after a messy, failed transaction with a US suitor.
Adelaide-based Mayne Pharma is selling everything it owns in Australia, including its factory in Salisbury, to a Perth-based company for $55.5 million.
Once the deal is done – expected in January next year – Mayne Pharma will become a purely US-focused business with no assets in Australia.
CEO Aaron Gray said the announcement was a “defining step in Mayne Pharma’s transformation”.
Mayne Pharma is valued at about $246 million, and ranked 43rd in InDaily‘s 2026 South Australian Business Index. Shares in the company rose by about 11 per cent after the announcement was made this morning.
The deal with Perth-based Evaris Pharma is for Mayne Pharma International (MPI), which includes its drug development and manufacturing operations centred on its facility in Salisbury.
There are 240 workers at the Salisbury factory, which has been operating for 40 years, and CEO Gray said in a teleconference with investors that those staff would “remain with the business”.
Mayne Pharma recently completed an $18 million upgrade of the Salisbury facility.
You might like
“This transaction crystallises the value of that investment at an attractive price,” Gray said.
Evaris Pharma CEO Steffan Crausaz said his company was “committed to the Salisbury site”.
“We look forward to welcoming MPI’s highly skilled team to Evaris Pharma,” Crausaz said.
“Our priority is a seamless transition for MPI’s customers, partners and the patients who rely on its medicines.
“With the capabilities behind it, we see opportunities to expand MPI’s contract manufacturing business, utilise the recent facility upgrade and build on the momentum of its Australian portfolio.”
Once the deal is completed in early 2027, Mayne Pharma will retain its US-based women’s health and dermatology brands, as well as its US direct-to-patient platform DistributeRx.
The Salisbury factory will also continue to manufacture two of Mayne Pharma’s products: the antibiotic Doryx MPC and the antifungal medication Tolsura.
“For Mayne Pharma, the sale will make us a business 100 pert cent focused on the United States, where our Women’s Health and Dermatology franchises and the DistributeRx platform represent the clear majority of group revenue and our largest growth opportunity,” Gray said.
Stay informed, daily
The company’s Australian operations only contributed 4.6 per cent to the broader Mayne Pharma earnings. As such, the deal does not require shareholder approval.
While the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will assess the transaction, it does not require Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) approval as the buyer is based in Perth.
‘This affirms that we were correct’
The announcement comes more than a year after Mayne Pharma was embroiled in a messy transaction with a US suitor that wanted to purchase the entire company for about $672 million.
That buyer, Cosette, attempted to bail on the transaction within three months saying the company’s weakening sales amounted to a “material adverse change”, meaning it could back out.
But that position failed in court, so Cosette told the FIRB that it would be selling or closing the Salisbury factory should it successfully purchase Mayne.
This led to intervention from SA Premier Peter Malinauskas, who asked the FIRB to block the deal.
Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers also intervened, requesting the FIRB restrain Cosette from shutting down the Salisbury site.
Chalmers eventually blocked the transaction, and Mayne Pharma successfully sued Cosette over the failed deal. The suitor was ordered to pay Mayne $13.27 million in legal costs plus interest.
Today, Gray told investors that the new deal with Evaris “affirms we were correct” about the value of the Salisbury factory.
“We obviously thought all along that there was value in the factory, in the work, in the people,” he said.
“This affirms that we were correct.”
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
