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 LEO Pharma would pay AstraZeneca $115 million in upfront payment and
$1 billion in milestones. However, AstraZeneca will retain rights to
develop the drug, tralokinumab, to treat severe asthma, the company
said.
Shares of AstraZeneca were trading nearly flat at 4,463 pence on
Friday at 7.04 GMT on the London Stock Exchange.
Separately, AstraZeneca said it terminated its licensing deal with
Canadian drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc on its
experimental psoriasis drug, brodalumab, and sold the rights to that
drug in Europe to LEO Pharma. Details of the deal were not
disclosed.
AstraZeneca said it did not expect the deals to have any impact on
its earnings forecast.
AstraZeneca's deal with LEO Pharma falls in line with the British
drugmaker's recent strategy of focusing on cancer treatments and
keeping its market position in developing respiratory treatments.
AstraZeneca, which badly needs new drugs to combat the loss of
patent protection on its older drugs, is pinning its hopes on
another experimental treatment for severe asthma, benralizumab,
while it develops more than 10 other respiratory treatments.
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In June alone, AstraZeneca had sold regional sales rights to its new
gout drug Zurampic and global marketing rights to a portfolio of
anaesthetics to raise about $1 billion to fund investments in new
drugs.
(Reporting by Vidya L Nathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar
Warrier and Sunil Nair)
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