Takeda To Divest Select Products to Stada in $660-Million Deal
Takeda Pharmaceutical has agreed to divest a portfolio of 20 select products to Stada Arzneimittel, a generics and specialty pharmaceuticals company, for a total value of $660 million. The portfolio includes over-the-counter and prescription pharmaceutical products marketed exclusively in Russia, Georgia, and a number of countries from within the Commonwealth of Independent States.
This is Takeda’s fourth divestment transaction in the past six months that contributes to the company’s goal to divest approximately $10 billion in non-core assets following its $62-billion acquisition of Shire, which completed earlier this year (January 2019).
The select OTC and prescription pharmaceutical assets are sold in Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. Under the agreement, Stada will acquire the rights, title, and interests to the products in the portfolio exclusive to these countries.
The portfolio to be divested to Stada includes OTC vitamins and food supplements and select products within the cardiovascular, diabetes, general medicine, and respiratory therapeutic areas. Included in the transaction is Takeda’s Cardiomagnyl (acetylsalicylic acid), used to prevent blood clots, Nesina (alogliptin) for treating Type II diabetes, and Edarbi (azilsartan medoxomil) an angiotensin II receptor blocker for blood-pressure control.
This is Takeda’s fourth divestment transaction in the past six months. Takeda completed the divestiture of its dry-eye care drug, Xiidra (lifitegrast ophthalmic solution), to Novartis for up to $5.3 billion in July 2019 and announced the sale of TachoSil, a fibrin sealant patch to control bleeding post-surgery, to Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon for $400 million in May 2019. In October 2019, Takeda announced the sale of non-core assets in countries spanning near East, Middle East and Africa to Acino, a Swiss pharmaceutical company, for over $200 million. Combined, the portfolio of products to be divested to Stada and Acino generated revenues of approximately $300 million in fiscal year 2018.
Takeda anticipates that approximately 500 employees supporting the divested assets will be given the opportunity to transition over to Stada at closing. Further, Takeda and Stada will enter into manufacturing and supply agreements under which Takeda will continue to manufacture and supply the products to Stada.
The companies expect the transaction to close in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2019 (January to March 2020), subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. Until then, the products will continue to be made available to patients and manufactured and supplied by Takeda.
