EffRx Pharmaceuticals SA, a specialty pharmaceutical company, announced the signing of two new distribution agreements that will bring its osteoporosis treatment, Binosto, to strategic markets in Russia, CIS countries and Africa.

EffRx has partnered with Andrus, Ltd. to distribute Binosto in Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Through another partnership, with Adcock Ingram Heathcare (Pty) Ltd., Binosto will be available in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Ghana.

EffRx’s first commercial product, Binosto, is a buffered, effervescent formulation of alendronate, the most broadly prescribed treatment for osteoporosis. The product was approved by the US Food & Drug Administration in 2012. With these agreements, Binosto will be commercially available in 53 countries worldwide.

“We are excited to expand the global footprint of Binosto with the addition of these fast-growing emerging markets,” said Lorenzo Bosisio, EffRx chief commercial officer. “Binosto is our first approved product and provides an important proof of concept for our development pipeline of novel therapeutic entities, and we look forward to making it available to an increasing population with these two agreements.”

“The continued worldwide adoption of Binosto is the first of our current out-licensing initiatives and is expected to provide a steady income stream in the future. We continue to focus on the two other, potentially larger, elements of our threefold growth strategy products in the orphan drug segment, including the ongoing development of our PCOS product, and lifecycle management,” said Christer Rosén, EffRx chairman and chief executive officer.