Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. is reportedly acquiring the rights of a late-stage experimental psoriasis drug brodalumab from AstraZeneca Plc's following Amgen Inc.'s retreat three months ago.
On Tuesday, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., a Montreal, Canada-based, announced that they are buying the rights from AstraZeneca for an upfront payment of $100 million. According to Reuters, the company will also be paying $170 million for additional pre-launch milestone payments while $175 million for sales-related milestone payments after the launch.
The Valeant-AstraZeneca's brodalumab deal, which was dropped by Amgen Inc. because of risks involving suicidal thoughts that were observed in some patients taking the medicine, is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of 2015. However, it excludes Japan and certain other Asian nations where rights to the drug are held by Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Bloomberg noted.
The drug brodalumab, which belongs to a class of drugs called IL-17 inhibitors that work by obstructing a signaling pathway that plays a vital role in inducing and promoting inflammatory diseases, will be submitted in the fourth quarter to treat moderate-to-severe psoriasis. As described, psoriasis is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the growth cycle of skin cells is increased.
As AstraZeneca entered into a collaboration agreement with Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., an exclusive license will be granted to Valeant to develop and commercialize brodalumab, Yahoo! Finance reported. And once the deal is approved, AstraZeneca and Valeant will then share profits.
Moreover, the deal would not substantially impact AstraZeneca's financial forecasts for 2015. And the income from the upfront and milestone payments will be reported as "externalization revenue".
Amid the decline in European stocks, AstraZeneca shares fell 2.3 percent to 4,027 pence. A year ago, analysts estimated that annual sales of brodalumab, a drug used to treat skin disease and related forms of arthritis, could reach as much as $1.5 billion at their peak.
While AstraZeneca collaborated with Valeant for brodalumab, its collaboration with Amgen started three years ago, with plans to develop five medications.
