Dive Brief:
- Following on a proposal made back in May, Swedish biotech Medivir has confirmed it intends to split into two companies — one that retains its already-marketed therapies and another that focuses on R&D.
- The proposed split is expected to come to fruition by the end of the year, resulting in "two clearly focused, specialized companies."
- Medivir expects to present further details about the split at a capital markets day later in the year.
Dive Insight:
One of the newly formed companies will retain Medivir's portfolio of 15 drugs, including Olysio (simeprevir), the hepatitis C drug with which it is partnered on with Johnson & Johnson.
The portfolio also includes 13 other products which Medivir acquired through a buyout of BioPhausia in 2011.
The commercial company will have a separate listing on the First North Premium exchange.
The R&D-focused entity, on the other hand, will be centered around the company's sole clinical candidate — MIV-711, a treatment currently being tested in Phase 2 for osteoarthritis. Data from a trial studying the drug in knee osteoarthritis is expected sometime in the third quarter of 2017.
Medivir's split is similar to a move taken by respiratory biotech Theravance in 2013. Theravance divided its assets between a royalty-based company, dubbed Royalty Management, and another which focused on the biotech's pipeline and retained the name Theravance Biopharma.
Royalty Management later changed its name to Innoviva, concentrating its efforts around a collaboration Theravance had with GlaxoSmithKline for several respiratory products, while the development company began focusing more on vaccines.