Aeterna Zentaris Rises on Finalized Marketing Agreement

By Chris Lange Updated Jan 13, 4:37PM EST · Published Dec 1, 11:15AM EST

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Aeterna Zentaris Rises on Finalized Marketing Agreement — © Thinkstock

Aeterna Zentaris Inc. (NASDAQ: AEZS) was leading the bulls in Tuesday’s regular trading session. The company announced that it has finalized of a co-marketing agreement with Armune BioScience that will allow it to promote Armune’s Apifiny, the only cancer specific, non-PSA blood test for the detection of prostate cancer.

Under the co-marketing agreement, Aeterna Zentaris will promote Apifiny to designated medical professionals in its U.S. territories and will receive a commission for each test performed resulting from its targeted promotion.

Apifiny is a simple, non-PSA based measure for patients and their clinicians to aid in assessment of prostate cancer risk. It enhances the focus on the oncology marketplace in general and on the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of prostate cancer in particular. Also recently it was reported that Zoptrex demonstrated potential as a treatment for certain types of prostate cancer in an investigator-sponsored Phase 2 trial.

David A. Dodd, chairman, president and CEO of Aeterna Zentaris, said:

Promoting Apifiny will give our sales force experience in the oncology market, which will serve us well as we move toward the commercialization of Zoptrex, if it is approved by the FDA. We are also looking forward to developing a much more in-depth relationship with Armune in connection with the evaluation of Zoptrex for prostate cancer and perhaps other indications.

David A. Esposito, president and CEO of Armune BioScience, added:

We are very excited to begin our partnership with Aeterna Zentaris through this initial agreement. The experience and expertise of the commercial and research teams at Aeterna Zentaris will be extremely helpful to Armune as we accelerate the growth of APIFINY and develop our autoantibody technology across major areas of unmet need in cancer. In less than eight months on the market, APIFINY has been ordered over 2,500 times as clinicians move beyond PSA-based testing to assess prostate cancer risk. Aeterna Zentaris will help us achieve the full potential of this opportunity.

Shares of Aeterna Zentaris were trading up 8.7% at $10.54 Tuesday, with a consensus analyst price target of $52.50 and a 52-week trading range of $3.19 to $89.00.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.