27th Jan 2020 08:04
(Alliance News) - AstraZeneca PLC on Monday reported the sale of a range of hypertension drugs as well as two positive drug trial outcomes.
Astra is selling the commercial rights to Inderal, Tenormin, Tenoretic, Zestril, and Zestoretic to Basildon-based Atnahs Pharma for USD350 million upfront. It may also get a further USD40 million depending on sales between 2020 and 2022.
The sale excludes the US and India, which have already been sold, as well as Japan, where Astra will keep commercial rights. Astra said following the sale the drugs' patents have now been lost.
"These are important established medicines, and the divestment to Atnahs ensures they will continue to be available to patients. This transaction supports our strategy to realise value from our portfolio of non-core mature brands, enabling further investment in new medicines," said Ruud Dobber, the executive vice-president of BioPharmaceuticals at Astra.
Elsewhere, the FTSE 100-listed pharmaceutical company said stroke treatment Brilinta met its primary endpoint in a phase three trial, achieving a clinically significant reduction in the risk of death in strokes compared to just aspirin.
"Results of the phase three THALES trial showed Brilinta, in combination with aspirin, improved outcomes in patients who had experienced a minor acute ischaemic stroke or high-risk transient ischaemic attack. We look forward to sharing the detailed results with health authorities," said Mene Pangelos, the executive president for BioPharmaceuticals R&D at Astra.
Enhertu, a gastric cancer treatment, also met its primary endpoint, in a phase II trial. Astra said the drug achieved a "statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement" in the response and survival rate of patients with unresectable or metastatic gastric of gastroesophageal cancer.
The drug was being tested on patients which had already had two or more bouts of treatment with trastuzumab and chemotherapy.
"Gastric cancer is usually diagnosed in the advanced stage and patients face markedly high mortality rates, making the need for new therapies especially urgent," said Jose Baselga, executive vice-president of Oncology R&D.
"Given the previous results seen in our HER2-positive development programme and now in HER2-positive metastatic gastric cancer, we believe this antibody drug conjugate has the potential to redefine the treatment of patients with HER2-expressing cancers."
Earlier Monday, Chicago-based AbbVie Inc said it would be selling the rights to brazikumab to Astra, which is in development for the treatment of gastrointestinal conditions such as Crohn's disease. No financial details were given.
"We're pleased to bring brazikumab back into the AstraZeneca pipeline. With our expanding presence in immunology, there is an opportunity to address a significant unmet need in inflammatory bowel diseases where the majority of patients are unable to achieve clinical remission with current treatment options," said Astra's Pangelos.
"This agreement creates an opportunity for us to complete the full development programme and bring this potential new treatment option to patients as quickly as possible."
AstraZeneca shares were down 1.6% at 7,535.00 pence each on Monday morning in London.
By George Collard; [email protected]
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