A drugmaker in one of the largest acquisition deals announced last year is offloading an investigational treatment for autoimmune disease and an approved drug for a pancreatic disorder in order to satisfy federal antitrust requirements.
Chicago-based AbbVie and Dublin-based Allergan both said Monday that Allergan would divest rights to two drugs, brazikumab and Zenpep (pancrelipase), as part of their $63 billion merger, announced in June 2019.
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Brazikumab is a monoclonal antibody against IL-23 in Phase IIb/III development for Crohn’s disease and in Phase II development for ulcerative colitis. Allergan is selling rights to the drug to London-based drugmaker AstraZeneca. Zenpep is used to treat exocrine pancreatic insufficiency due to cystic fibrosis and other conditions. Switzerland-based Nestle is acquiring rights to the drug, along with rights to another Allergan pancreatic enzyme drug, Viokace (pancrelipase).
“Today, we move another step closer to completing AbbVie’s acquisition of Allergan,” Allergan CEO Brent Saunders said in a statement. “Allergan’s commercial and R&D teams have invested so much of themselves into the development of brazikumab and the commercialization of Zenpep, and these divestiture agreements will enable that work to continue following the close of our planned acquisition.”
AbbVie already has an IL-23-targeting monoclonal antibody, Skyrizi (risankizumab-rzaa), which is approved for treating psoriasis and is in Phase III development for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
The news coincided with an announcement by AstraZeneca itself on Monday that it would sell off rights to several drugs to treat hypertension that have lost patent protection around the world, with the aim of focusing its pipeline on newer drugs. The divested drugs include Inderal (propranolol), Tenormin (atenolol), Tenoretic (atenolol, chlorthalidone), Zestril (lisonopril) and Zestoretic (lisinopril, hydrochlorothiazide).
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The company is selling them for $350 million to Basildon, U.K.-based Atnahs Pharma, which will acquire rights to the drugs for markets globally except the U.S. and India – which were already divested – and Japan, where AstraZeneca will retain rights. The five drugs combined had sales of $132 million in 2018, AstraZeneca said.
“These are important established medicines, and the divestment to Atnahs ensures they will continue to be available to patients,” said Ruud Dobber, AstraZeneca’s executive vice president for biopharmaceuticals, in a statement. “This transaction supports our strategy to realize value from our portfolio of non-core mature brands, enabling further investment in new medicines.”
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