Charleston specialty pharma business acquired for $27.5 million

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Charleston’s Evening Post Group has sold EPI Health LLC to a public specialty dermatology company based out of Durham, N.C., for a closing purchase price of $27.5 million.

Novan Inc., the acquiring company, completed the transaction with $11 million cash and $16.5 million as a 24-month seller note.

Additional performance earnouts and specific milestones achieved by EPI Health’s products could increase the total consideration to about $50 million.

Blank Rome LLP acted as legal adviser to Evening Post Group in this transaction.

“We are proud of what EPI Health has accomplished under EPG (Evening Post Group) ownership,” said Terry Hurley, president and CEO of Evening Post Group, in a statement. “We see this acquisition as a great strategic fit for Novan and look forward to seeing the combined company take the next step in dermatology treatment.”

EPI Health was first acquired in 2017 by Evening Post Group, a family-owned operating group that began as a single newspaper in 1896 and evolved into an operator of businesses across various sectors through more than 20 acquisitions.

EPI Health was owned by a division of Evening Post Industries, which operates more than a dozen other daily and weekly publications, including The Post and Courier, a Pulitzer Prize-winning daily newspaper in Charleston, along with Courier Square, a real estate development in Charleston.

EPI is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on dermatology with various FDA-approved medicines through several product acquisitions.

Since then, it has grown to operate a sales force of about 40 employees servicing dermatologists nationwide. It now joins Novan, which develops and markets therapeutic products for skin diseases.