AstraZeneca today disclosed licensing agreements for rights to two of its medicines that will generate a combined $500 million for the pharma giant.
China Medical System Holdings (CMS) agreed to pay AstraZeneca $310 million for commercialization rights in China to its hypertension treatment Plendil (felodipine).
AstraZeneca said it will manufacture and supply the medicine to CMS and will maintain a “significant, long-term interest” in the future value derived from Plendil sales in China.
Plendil is a calcium antagonist indicated for both hypertension and the prophylaxis of chronic stable angina pectoris. Plendil is designed to block the action of calcium on blood vessels and the heart, allowing the blood vessels to relax and the heart to beat more slowly and with less force. Plendil’s sustained-release formulation is administered once daily.
First approved by the FDA in 1991, Plendil won authorization in China four years later. Last year, Plendil generated $189 million in product sales.
Outside China, AstraZeneca’s second-largest market globally, the company will retain global rights to Plendil.
“The agreement ensures widespread patient access to an established medicine and continued long-term revenues, while focusing our resources on commercializing innovative new medicines from our pipeline across our main therapy areas,” Mark Mallon, evp, international, at AstraZeneca, said in a statement.
The transaction does not include the transfer of any AstraZeneca employees or facilities, the company said.
In addition, CMS and its associated company Tibet Rhodiola Pharmaceutical Holding Co. agreed to pay AstraZeneca $190 million for global rights outside the U.S. to Imdur, indicated for angina pectoris in patients with heart disease.
Imdur is an oral extended-release formulation of isosorbide mononitrate (ISMN) first launched in Europe in 1985. Imdur has since been marketed in more than 40 countries, and last year generated global sales outside the U.S. of $57 million.
The Imdur deal is set to close in the second quarter of this year, while the Plendil transaction will close upon signing.
AstraZeneca said neither agreement will impact its financial guidance for 2016, which called for “low to mid single-digit” percentage declines in both total revenue and “core” or non-GAAP earnings per share.
