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 The British drugmaker, which has high hopes for its new drug
pipeline but faces declining sales as older products lose patent
protection, said rights to Entocort outside the United States would
be acquired by Tillotts Pharma, part of the Zeria Group.
Entocort, or budesonide, is used to treat patients with mild to
moderate Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. It is sold in more
than 40 countries and had sales of $53 million outside the United
States in 2014.
The transaction is expected to complete in the second half of 2015
and AstraZeneca said it would reinforce its strategic focus on
selected therapy areas, such as cancer, respiratory disease and
diabetes.
Chief Executive Pascal Soriot argues that spinning off non-core
businesses like Entocort will help the company's finances and allow
it to invest for the future, but some analysts are worried about its
reliance on such deals.
The issue came to a head in April when AstraZeneca said it was
getting a $450 million windfall by letting Celgene develop a prized
immunotherapy drug for blood cancers.
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Soriot has also struck cash-generating externalization deals with
Eli Lilly in Alzheimer's and with Daiichi Sankyo for a new
constipation drug.
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Pravin Char)
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