Aceto Corporation Announces Definitive Purchase Agreement To Acquire Certain Assets Of Rising Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., Dec. 15, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aceto Corporation (Nasdaq:ACET), a global leader in the sourcing, quality assurance, regulatory support, marketing and distribution of pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, specialty chemicals and crop protection products, today announced that it has signed a definitive purchase agreement for its wholly-owned subsidiary to acquire certain assets of Rising Pharmaceuticals, Inc ("Rising").

Rising is a New Jersey based company that markets and distributes generic prescription and over the counter pharmaceutical products to leading wholesalers, chain drug stores, distributors, mass market merchandisers and others under its own label, throughout the United States. The Rising business will be operated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aceto Corporation by its existing management which will report to Aceto's Chairman and CEO, Albert Eilender.

Rising's products span a variety of therapeutic areas and dosage forms, manufactured under cGMP guidelines by its network of finished dosage form manufacturing partners. Additionally, in collaboration with selected manufacturers and pharmaceutical development companies, Rising has a product development pipeline that includes multiple numbers of abbreviated new drug applications on file with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The transaction contemplates that the key senior management of Rising, Ronald Gold and David Rosen, will enter into employment agreements with the Aceto subsidiary and will serve as President and COO, and Senior Vice President-Business Development, respectively.

Commenting on the transaction, Albert Eilender stated, "This transaction represents a significant step for Aceto by establishing another platform for our growth in the Health Sciences arena. As part of our strategic planning process, we had identified that further expansion of our finished dosage form product offerings from both foreign and domestic facilities complements our core strength of sourcing active pharmaceutical ingredients. Our initial experience with finished dosage form products confirmed our belief that this is a natural expansion of our existing business segment. With Rising as a part of our Health Sciences business segment, we will be able to market finished dosage form pharmaceutical products to the buyers of such products. We believe that the combination of our sourcing capabilities and the marketing expertise that Rising brings to the equation should allow us to provide greater benefits to both our active pharmaceutical ingredient suppliers and customers as well as to our overall business."