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
CureVac and the University of Texas’s MD Anderson Cancer Center have announced a co-development and licensing agreement to develop novel messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based cancer vaccines. The strategic collaboration will focus on the development of differentiated cancer vaccine candidates in selected haematological and solid tumour indications with high unmet medical needs.
FUJIFILM Corporation is planning to invest $1.2 billion to expand the planned FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, US. This news follows the organisation’s announcement of a $2 billion investment in the facility in March 2021. This additional financial boost totals the investment to over $3.2 billion, FUJIFILM confirmed.
Sanofi’s global restructuring and downsizing is now fully underway, with layoffs stretching to the company’s Belgian offices. Belgian newspaper De Tijd reports that 67 employees have been laid off at a site in Ghent and 32 jobs are on the chopping block at Sanofi’s Belgium HQ in Diegem.
