UCB is selling its speciality generics unit Kremers Urban Pharmaceuticals to US group Lannett for $1.23 billion.
The deal includes Kremers’ commercial portfolio of 18 products and 11 applications pending at the FDA, as well as its 381,000-square foot state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Seymour, Indiana.
The Belgian drugmaker said it plans to use proceeds from the divestiture to cut debt and increase its capacity for strategic investments, to further accelerate growth and/or strengthen its innovative medicines pipeline.
With unanimous backing from both UCB’s and Lannett’s boards of directors, the deal and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year, subject to customary closing conditions.
Osteoporosis drug beats Lilly’s Forteo
Meanwhile, UCB and Amgen said clinical data show that their experimental bone-building drug romosozumab was better at improving hip bone mineral density in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis than Lilly’s Forteo (teriparatide).
In the Phase III trial, around 436 postmenopausal women at high risk of fractures were switched from treatment with bisphosphonates (such as Merck & Co’s Fosamax) to either romosozumab or Forteo for 12 months.
Specific data were not revealed at this time, but the companies said the trial met its primary endpoint, with their drug showing a statistically significant improvement in bone density compared to Forteo.
By Selina McKee
Source: Pharma Times
A monkeypox outbreak is emerging in the U.S. and Europe, and at least one country is amping up countermeasure preparedness. Bavarian Nordic has secured a contract with an unnamed European country to supply its smallpox vaccine, called Imvanex in Europe, in response to the emergence of monkeypox cases, the Danish company said Thursday.
Moderna’s recent chief financial officer debacle—in which Jorge Gomez departed on his second day on the job—raised questions about the company’s hiring process given its rush to global biopharma prominence. The most obvious one: How was it possible for Gomez to be hired when he was under investigation by his previous employer, Dentsply Sirona of Charlotte, N.C.
Merck & Co. is plucking a cancer project from the branch of Chinese-based Kelun Pharmaceutical for up to $1.4 billion, but details from the New Jersey-based Big Pharma have been hard to come by. The deal, first disclosed Monday on the Shenzhen stock exchange, has Merck handing over $47 million in upfront cash in exchange for ex-China rights to a “macromolecular tumor project.”
