Almirall sells rights to respiratory disease business to AstraZeneca

Spanish group Almirall has announced that it has completed the transaction to transfer the rights of its respiratory franchise to AstraZeneca.

The pharma giant will now own the rights for the development and commercialisation of Almirall’s existing proprietary respiratory business, including rights to revenues from Almirall’s partnerships, as well as its pipeline of investigational novel therapies.

The franchise includes Eklira (aclidinium); Duaklir, the combination of aclidinium with formoterol (LAMA/LABA) that has received a positive opinion from the CHMP in the EU and is being developed in the US; LAS100977 (abediterol), a once-daily long-acting beta2-agonist (LABA) in Phase II; an M3 antagonist beta2-agonist (MABA) platform in pre-clinical development (LAS191351, LAS194871) and Phase I (LAS190792); and multiple pre-clinical programmes. Almirall Sofotec, an Almirall subsidiary focused on the development of proprietary devices, has also beeb transferred to AstraZeneca.

The transaction includes an upfront cash consideration upon completion of $875 million and, additionally, up to $1.22 billion “related to development, launch, and sales-related milestones”, according to the two firms. AstraZeneca has also agreed to make various sales-related payments.

Jorge Gallardo, President of Almirall said: “This global collaboration will allow us to maximise the potential value of our exciting respiratory franchise and AstraZeneca is the perfect partner to do this. Moreover, the deal has given us a strong financial baseline to accelerate our strategy and to start focusing our resources in becoming a top Dermatology global player with an additional interest in other specialist driven areas. Excellence in R&D will remain a key part of Almirall’s business going forward and we are confident that this agreement will make a significant contribution to the company’s long-term growth.”