AstraZeneca Trims Pipeline By Selling Two Respiratory Drugs to Covis Pharma

Last year, AstraZeneca sold the rights to several of its cardiac medications to lighten its pipeline. They sold two heart failure and hypertension drugs, Atacand and Atacand Plus, for $400 million to Cheplapharm. Additionally, in December 2020, they also sold the rights of Crestor to Grunenthal in a deal worth up to $350 million. Once a blockbuster drug, the rise of generics sharply cut into Crestor’s sales. In 2020, Crestor sales fell by 10% from 2019, reaching $1.18 billion.

AstraZeneca has now continued to trim down its pipeline by ending a collaboration to develop a cancer treatment and selling two drugs.

Ending a Deal 

Last week, Inovio announced that its collaboration to develop the cancer immunotherapy MEDI0457 would come to an end.  MEDI0457 is a therapy against cancers caused by certain types of human papillomavirus. 

Ending the deal saved AstraZeneca close to more than $700 million in the future. However, they will continue to fund several Phase 2 clinical trials that are already underway. 

The collaboration only generated a little over $2 million for Inovio. This is not the first collaboration with Inovio that AstraZeneca stopped early. In 2019, they stopped two pre-clinical programs aimed at the development of DNA-based oncology vaccines.

Surprisingly, Inovio’s stock was unaffected by the news.

Selling Two Respiratory Medications

Furthermore, AstraZeneca sold the rights to two of its medicines to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) to the Swiss pharmaceutical company Covis Pharma Group. 

This acquisition will complement Covis’ previous acquisition of respiratory medications. Back in 2018, Covis acquired the global rights to three respiratory medications from AstraZeneca, Alvesco, Omnaris, and Zetonna for $350 million. 

This time, Covis acquired the rights to the long-acting muscarinic antagonist, Eklira, and Duaklir, a combination therapy containing a long-acting muscarinic antagonist and a long-acting beta2-agonist. Both medicines are delivered via the Genuair device and used for the treatment of COPD.

In 2014, AstraZeneca licensed the global rights for both medications from Almirall.  In 2020, these medications generated $143 million in revenue for AstraZeneca. The patent for these medications is set to expire in 2029.

Covis will pay $270 million for both medications, and they will cover certain ongoing development costs for the medications. The deal is expected to close in Q4 of 2021.  

For the deal, Barclays acted as financial advisor and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP as legal advisor for Covis.

“This acquisition represents a highly strategic and synergistic transaction with AstraZeneca, enabling Covis to offer a full continuum of best-in-class therapies for allergic rhinitis, asthma, and COPD,” said Covis CEO Michael Porter.

“As a result of the acquisition, Covis is firmly placed as one of the top 10 respiratory companies in the world. Combined with our presence in other therapeutic areas and our internal life cycle management and product development programs, this transaction will further enhance our efforts to meet the evolving needs of patients and their health care providers.”

Author

Daniel Ojeda