Dive Brief:
- Baxter International is partnering with Dorizoe Lifesciences to speed up development for roughly two dozen generic injectables.
- According to a Baxter spokesperson, the India-based provider of R&D services will assist in formulation development and analytical development, regulatory filing support, and other activities. The deal will cover more than 20 of the drugmaker's products aimed at treating infections, cancer or cardiovascular illness.
- "This partnership extends Baxter’s growing pipeline of generic injectables, further strengthening our portfolio with a broad range of high-quality essential medicines," Robert Felicelli, the company's president of pharmaceuticals, said in a Wednesday statement. Also per the agreement, Baxter retains worldwide manufacturing and commercialization rights to the products.
Dive Insight:
Baxter may have sold its biopharma spinoff Baxalta to Shire and its marketed vaccines to Pfizer, but it's not all the way out of the medicines game yet. To the contrary, the company has recently doubled down in fleshing out its injectable generics pipeline and production capabilities.
In May 2016, reports circulated that the Deerfield, Ill.-based drugmaker was in a prime position to snag Gland Pharma, which manufactures small volume parenteral injectables. China's Fosun Pharma ultimately locked down a majority stake in the target, but the loss didn't deter Baxter. About seven months later, the company took out Claris Lifesciences' injectables subsidiary for $625 million.
At the time, Baxter pledged to "build upon Claris Injectables’ existing footprint by adding Baxter’s differentiated technologies and making strategic investments to expand Claris Injectables’ R&D pipeline and manufacturing capacity." The acquirer also anticipated the deal would spur more candidates to market, with seven to nine launches annually through 2019, and even more in the years following.
The newest deal with Dorizoe appears to continue that push.
Baxter didn't disclose financial terms of the agreement. Nevertheless, the drugmaker has been upping its R&D investments, with expenses totaling $647 million in 2016, a 7.2% jump year-over-year. Betting on more generic injectables looks like it could offer solid returns as well. Baxter valued the global sterile generic injectables market at more than $40 billion, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10% between 2010 and 2015. Pfizer estimated the same CAGR for the market from 2013 to 2020 during its acquisition of Hospira two years back, and pegged it would reach $70 billion by 2020.
The pact with Dorizoe could also help Baxter's overall injectable business. Last year, the drugmaker reported lower U.S. sales of its pharmacy injectable products, attributed in a 10-K filing to non-recurrent government orders of the branded antidote Protopam (pralidoxime chloride).