The British pharmaceutical company will be able to raise up to 850 million of $ if certain objectives are met
The deal includes the divestment of Zavicefta for drug-resistant infections
Pfizer Inc. has purchased the antibiotics business from AstraZeneca Plc for $725,000,000, plus additional upfront payments if a part of another company is added.
According to a statement on Wednesday, Pfizer will pay $ 550 million to AstraZeneca when the transaction closes and will make another payment of $ 175 million in January 2019. In addition, AstraZeneca will be entitled to receive up to 250 million payments, which can be up to $ 600 million related to the sales that will be made, as well as for certain royalties.
New York-based Pfizer has sought various ways to strengthen its product lines with two failed attempts and a major acquisition, first with AstraZeneca in 2014, then with Allergan Plc this year. The American pharmaceutical company this week bought Medivation Inc. for $ 14 billion dollars.
AstraZeneca, meanwhile, has shored up its dwindling revenue by selling products that aren't critical to its business, thus enabling investments in areas central to them such as cancer research. The London-based drugmaker sold its stock in June anesthetic drugs , another non-essential area, to Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd. Revenues from such “outsourcing,” as the company calls it, were $ 1.1 billion last year, and AstraZeneca said they would increase this year.
Serious infections
Shares of AstraZeneca fell 0.7 percent to 5,027 pence at 08:56 am. The stock is up 8.9 percent this year. Pfizer closed in New York on Tuesday at $ 35.09 per share, up 0.7 percent.
Pfizer is buying the rights to many of AstraZeneca's investigational and approved antibiotics in global markets outside the United States, including Zavicefta, which is used to treat severe bacterial infections resistant to other drugs — an area with growing demand. .
The deal will give Pfizer the rights to three drugs already on the market, including Zavicefta, which was approved by the European Commission in June. TO Pfizer will also be shipping two drugs that are still in clinical development, including one for the treatment of methicillin-resistant staph, or MRSA infections.
In a statement, John Young, Pfizer's group chairman, said AstraZeneca's portfolio will add to more than 60 essential health anti-infective and anti-fungal drugs that Pfizer already sells.
AstraZeneca, Luca Miels, executive vice president for Europe, said in a statement, is "pleased that strong antibiotic research will continue to meet a critical public health need through a dedicated Pfizer focus on infectious diseases."
The deal does not include biotech products in development at AstraZeneca's MedImmune unit, or AstraZeneca's interest in Entasis Therapeutics, a company that develops new anti-infective small molecules
August 24, 2016 – by Natasha Khan Ketaki Gokhale – Bloomberg
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