A Danish drugmaker plans to purchase the dermatology unit of German pharmaceutical giant Bayer.
LEO Pharma and Bayer said Tuesday that LEO would buy the latter’s global prescription dermatology unit. Although financial terms were not disclosed, the unit’s products saw an annual turnover last year of 280 million euros, or about $327.5 million. The unit’s product portfolio includes prescription drugs for acne, fungal skin infections, rosacea and also topical steroids. The acquisition does not include Bayer’s over-the-counter dermatology drug portfolio.
Under the deal, LEO – a privately held company based in Ballerup, Denmark, with US operations in Madison, New Jersey – will acquire rights to the drugs for the whole world, excluding Pakistan and Afghanistan, while taking over sales and marketing in 14 countries and a factory in Segrate, Italy.
The Italian factory makes 80 percent of the products LEO is acquiring, said LEO’s CEO, Gitte Aabo, in a phone interview. About 450 Bayer employees will join LEO, while the remaining 250 or so may be affected over the next three years, but she said it is unlikely very many of those people will be laid off, and the company does not plan to lay people off in the short term.
While reiterating that financial terms of the Bayer deal were not disclosed, Aabo said it was the second-largest acquisition deal for LEO since the company closed a similar transaction two years ago with Japan’s Astellas Pharma to acquire that company’s global dermatology portfolio, for 675 million euros, or $789.5 million.
In addition to large acquisitions, the company also has plans in the coming years to invest significantly in research and development, Aabo said. The company has two actively recruiting Phase III studies of the monoclonal antibody tralokinumab in atopic dermatitis – one enrolling US adolescents and a global adult study – along with an extension study for participants that has yet to begin enrollment, according to ClinicalTrials.gov. A fourth Phase III clinical trial tests the company’s topical creams among Chinese patients.
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