|
 The deal gives Ironwood the rights to sell the drug, Zurampic, or
lesinurad, which was approved in the United States last year to
treat high levels of uric acid in the blood of patients suffering
from gout.
The agreement also covers rights to a fixed-dose combination of
lesinurad and allopurinol.
U.S.-based Ironwood said it would make an upfront payment of $100
million to AstraZeneca, plus sales-related and other milestones of
up to $165 million. Ironwood will also pay AstraZeneca tiered
single-digit royalties on product sales.
AstraZeneca has a strategy of selling certain rights to non-core
medicines to help pay the bills as it invests in new drugs and copes
with the loss of patent protection on a raft of former blockbusters.
Such "externalization" deals contributed $1.1 billion to revenue
last year and the company has said the figure is likely to be higher
in 2016.
(Reporting by Vidya L Nathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anupama
Dwivedi and Mark Potter)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
