Aspen buys GSK plant and thrombosis drugs for $1.1 billion
pharmafile | October 1, 2013 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Sales and Marketing | GSK, aspen
South African drugmaker Aspen Pharmacare has signed another combined brand and manufacturing facility deal, this time taking on GlaxoSmithKline’s thrombosis portfolio and the plant in France that makes them.
The £700 million ($1.1 billion) agreement has been on the cards for several months and sees Aspen take control of GSK’s Factor Xa inhibitor Arixtra (fondaparinux sodium), and low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) Fraxiparine (nadroparin) in most world markets except China, India and Pakistan.
Sales of the drugs were £177 million in the first half of this year in the markets subject to transfer to Aspen, in which GSK holds an 18.6% stake. Exiting the business is part of GSK’s plan to focus on drugs with higher growth potential and to deliver on its late-stage pipeline, the company said, adding that it would use the proceeds of the deal for general corporate purposes.
The deal also covers GSK’s specialised sterile product facility at Notre Dame de Bondeville (NDB), near Rouen, which manufactures both the products as well as other GSK products such as vaccine diluents.
The plant employs around 700 staff, but it is not yet clear how many production workers will make the transfer to Aspen. In a statement, GSK said the ‘majority of commercial operations’ will transition to Aspen by the end of 2013 with the remainder – along with the NDB site – making the switch in the first half of next year.
All told, around 400 staff are involved in sales and marketing for the two brands, and the deal will see some 1,000 workers transfer to the South African firm, according to a GSK spokesperson.
Aspen has been growing fast on the back of international acquisitions, and earlier this year spent $1 billion on a Merck Sharpe & Dohme (MSD) facility in Oss, the Netherlands, along with a portfolio of 11 branded finished dosage form drugs.
Previously, it bought GSK’s Australian generics unit last year for $270 million, as well as Australian group Sigma’s pharma business in 2009 for around $800 million, to give a major lift to its presence in Asia.
Aspen is Africa’s biggest drugmaker with 6,000 employees and sales of 19.3 billion rand ($1.9 billion) in the year ended June 30, up 27% year-on-year, and says it is the ninth-largest generic drugmaker worldwide.
The MSD and GSK deals will ‘transform the group’, said the company, by “expanding the global brands portfolio with the addition of established products which have strong market acceptance and widening Aspen’s geographic reach”.
Phil Taylor
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