AstraZeneca has announced that Covis Pharma will pay $350 million up front for the rights to market Alvesco ciclesonide MDI and the ciclesonide nasal spray Omnaris and nasal MDI Zetonna outside of the US. The deal also includes up to $21 million in potential payments conditioned on sales over the 4 years beginning in 2019. Covis acquired US rights to Alvesco, Omnaris, and Zetonna from Sunovion in 2017.
Covis Pharma CEO Michael Porter commented, “This is an exciting milestone for Covis Pharma and aligned with our strategy to build a global respiratory/allergy franchise. When we acquired the US rights for Alvesco, Omnaris and Zetonna in 2017, we recognized the importance of these medicines in the respiratory and allergy therapeutic area and we look forward to extending our reach to meet the needs of patients and physicians around the world.”
AstraZeneca Executive VP of Global Product and Portfolio Strategy Mark Mallon said, “One of our strategic objectives is to divest parts of our portfolio, allowing us to allocate resources to develop innovative new medicines to address unmet patient needs. Covis Pharma has strong capabilities in marketing medicines around the world, and our agreement with them means patients will continue to benefit from Alvesco, Omnaris and Zetonna.”
Read the AstraZeneca press release.
