US: Pfizer Buys AstraZeneca Antibiotics for Up to $1.575B

Pfizer has agreed to buy part of AstraZeneca PLC’s antibiotics business for up to $1.575 billion plus royalties in a move the US company said would boost the stable of older products it sells, some of which have lost patent protection.

Under the terms of the deal Pfizer will pay Astra $550 million upfront plus an unconditional $175 million in January 2019. Then, depending on the progress and commercial success of the drugs in question, it will pay a further $850 million plus royalties.

The deal involves three approved antibiotics and two drugs in clinical trials. It will give Pfizer the right to sell those drugs in most markets outside the US and Canada.

Allergan PLC holds the North American rights to four of the drugs. For the fifth drug, Merem, Pfizer will get the North American rights.

It doesn’t involve Astra’s portfolio of biological anti-infective drugs, or the business it spun out last year to focus on the development of early-stage antibiotics.

Pfizer said the drugs would add to its “essential health” business, which sells older products including those that have lost patent protection. The U.S. company already has a portfolio of more than 60 anti-infective and antifungal medicines, said John Young, who heads that unit.

Full Content: The Wall Street Journal

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