Novartis set to boost generic portfolio
pharmafile | April 19, 2010 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Novartis, Sandoz, generics
Novartis’ generics arm Sandoz has signed a deal to acquire US-based inhalable drug specialist Oriel Therapeutics.
Sandoz will gain rights to a portfolio of generic drug candidates and related technologies targeting medicines in the inhalable drug market.
“Oriel is a strong strategic fit with Sandoz and the acquisition is expected to support our strategy of increasing the number of differentiated, higher-value products in our development pipeline,” said Jeff George, division head at Sandoz.
“One of our strategic objectives is to offer fully substitutable generic versions of key branded medicines, including respiratory medicines. This is a key area of focus that complements our global leadership position in biosimilars and complex injectables.”
The acquisition provides Sandoz with three development projects it says will target “leading” medicines in this field.
Sandoz’s parent company Novartis says regulatory approvals of these treatments, if forthcoming, would enable it to “increase access to affordable, high-quality therapeutic alternatives for these increasingly prevalent diseases”.
What developments these will be have not be disclosed for “competitive reasons”.
But Sandoz believe Oriel’s novel ‘FreePath’ drug delivery technology may have the potential to address some of the hurdles facing regulatory approval of generic inhaled medicines in the US.
Oriel has also developed the proprietary Solis disposable dry powder inhaler, based on the FreePath delivery technology.
Inhalable market
Approximately 50% of the current $32 billion global market segment for asthma and COPD medicines is expected to lose patent protection by the end of 2016, according to industry analysts IMS Health.
The asthma and COPD market segment is projected to grow significantly faster than the pharmaceutical market, driven by factors including a significant level of under-diagnosis, and Novartis/Sandoz will hope this acquisition will gain them a large market share in the future.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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