Glaxo Sells Rights to Auto-Immune Drug to Novartis -- Update
21 August 2015 - 11:19PM
Dow Jones News
By Ian Walker and Denise Roland
LONDON-- GlaxoSmithKline PLC is selling its remaining rights to
a drug for use in treating autoimmune diseases, including multiple
sclerosis, to Novartis AG for up to $1 billion, plus royalties.
Glaxo said on Friday that Novartis will own rights to
ofatumumab, as the drug is known, in all indications. The Swiss
company will also pay royalties of up to 12% to Glaxo on any future
net sales of the drug related to autoimmune indications. Novartis
had previously bought the rights to the drug as a cancer treatment,
for which it is marketed as Arzerra.
The sale follows the previously agreed $20 billion asset swap
between the two pharmaceutical groups, which they completed earlier
this year.
The Novartis transaction involved Glaxo trading its oncology
franchise for the Swiss company's vaccines business and forming a
joint venture on consumer health care, thereby reducing Glaxo's
reliance on innovative medicines.
"We continue to focus on progressing our pipeline in core
therapy areas including HIV, oncology, vaccines, cardiovascular,
immuno-inflammation and respiratory diseases," said GSK Chief
Strategy Officer David Redfern.
"We believe Glaxo's pipeline has significant potential to drive
long-term performance for the group and will be profiling it
further at our R&D event in November," Mr. Redfern said.
Novartis said the deal would boost its lineup of
multiple-sclerosis treatments. "Novartis is pleased to further
reinforce our commitment to neuroscience and to add an exciting new
treatment to our strong MS portfolio," said David Epstein, head of
Novartis Pharmaceuticals.
The Swiss drug maker appears to be lining up ofatumumab as a
successor to its $2.5 billion-a-year MS drug, gilenya, which will
lose US patent protection as early as 2019. However, its sales
potential could be muted since it will compete with a number of
other therapies already on the market.
With phase three trial results not expected until 2018, Novartis
also lags three years behind a similar drug under development at
Roche, according to analysts at Deutsche Bank. As a result, the
bank expects ofatumumab to make $300 million in peak year sales for
autoimmune disorders.
The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.
Write to Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 21, 2015 09:04 ET (13:04 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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