Pharma giant nets $67m from latest divestment of medical treatment

Pharmaceuticals group Astrazeneca will receive more than $67m from divesting its global rights to one of its medications.

The group, which employs around 4,700 people in the North West on sites at Macclesfield and Alderley Park in Cheshire and Speke on Merseyside, announced this morning that it has agreed to sublicense its global rights to Movantik, used for treating opioid-induced constipation, but excluding the regions of Europe, Canada and Israel.

In 2016, AstraZeneca divested the rights to Movantik in Europe to ProStrakan Group (now KKI) and the rights in Canada and Israel to Knight Therapeutics.

Israeli company Redhill Biopharma will make an upfront payment of $52.5m to AstraZeneca on closing, and a further non-contingent payment of $15m in 2021, for the rights.

Ruud Dobber, executive vice president, biopharmaceuticals business unit, said: “This divestment supports our strategy to realise value from medicines in our portfolio that are mature or outside our current scope to enable reinvestment in our main therapy areas.

“Movantik is an important established medicine and the divestment to RedHill will ensure its continued availability for patients.”

As part of the agreement, AstraZeneca will continue to manufacture and supply Movantik to RedHill during a transition period.

In 2015, AstraZeneca entered into a co-commercialisation agreement with Daiichi Sankyo Inc for Movantik in the US, which will be transferred to RedHill.

In 2019, Movantik generated sales of $96m in the US.

The divestment is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2020, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory clearances.

Upon completion, the agreement will not impact Astrazeneca’s financial guidance for 2020.