SkyePharma has announced that AstraZeneca will pay $8 million in January 2013 “to settle certain disputes” resulting from AZ’s termination of their licensing deal for the Pulmicort MDI. The deal was terminated after AZ discontinued production of the inhaler in early 2011 due to manufacturing problems. At the time, SkyePharma, which developed the product, said that royalties from Pulmicort MDI sales in 2009 and the first half of 2010 made up approximately 5% of the company’s revenues.
In its year end update, SkyePharma also highlighted the approval of Flutiform by the EC earlier this year and noted that the new inhaler will be manufactured and assembled by Sanofi at its Holmes Chapel, UK facility. SkyePharma said that it “expects to invest a further £2 to £3 million per annum in capital expenditure for the next three years to scale up and validate the manufacturing process at increased volumes.”
SkyePharma CEO Peter Grant commented, “We enter 2013 in a significantly improved financial position having successfully restructured our debt and negotiated an $8 million settlement in respect of the cessation of Pulmicort pMDI.”
Read the SkyePharma press release.
