Dive Brief:
- AstraZeneca has sold off European rights for two heart failure drugs to Germany specialty pharma Cheplapharm, shedding Atacand and Atacand Plus from its portfolio in 28 European countries in exchange for $200 million upfront.
- Revenues from the two medicines totaled $86 million in Europe last year, down 11% from 2016. Sales were stronger in emerging markets, where AstraZeneca recorded $178 million in revenue in 2017.
- AstraZeneca will manufacture and supply both drugs for Cheplapharm, and will continue to market the drugs in geographies where it retains rights. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2018.
Dive Insight:
Approved in Europe in 1997, Atacand (candesartan cilexetil) lost its patent protection in 2014, and is now widely available as a generic. That makes it a target for AstraZeneca's externalization strategy, which has traded rights to older and non-core drugs in exchange for near-term cash.
"This agreement forms part of our strategy of streamlining our portfolio of mature medicines to enable reinvestment in our main therapy areas and bringing new medicines to patients," said Mark Mallon, head of global product & portfolio strategy at AstraZeneca.
The British pharma has already packaged off U.S. rights to the two drugs earlier this year, inking a deal with ANI Pharmaceutical that also included a U.S. license to the cancer treatments Arimidex (anastrozole) and Casodex (bicalutamide).
Last year, emerging markets were the only geography in which sales of Atacand grew. But that looks set to change too, as AstraZeneca booked a 16% drop in sales over the first three months of this year.
Atacand and Atacand Plus are the latest additions to a long list of older drugs to which AstraZeneca has bid farewell, including sending Seroquel (quetiapine) to China's Luye Pharma Group.
These divestments are aimed at giving AstraZeneca the cash to pour into development of its three key areas in oncology, respiratory, and cardiovascular and metabolic.
For its part, Cheplapharm has worked to grow its cardiology therapeutic area, already one of its largest divisions. In May this year, for example, the company acquired Bristol-Myers Squibb's Sotalex/Sotacor (sotalol).
The German drugmaker is also expanding, announcing Tuesday that it has invested €6 million (around $7 million) to expand its German headquarters in Greifswald.