AstraZeneca has announced an agreement with Basildon-based Atnahs Pharma to sell global commercial rights of its established hypertension medicines.
Five medicines - Inderal (propranolol), Tenormin (atenolol), Tenoretic (atenolol, chlorthalidone fixed-dose combination), Zestril (Lisinopril) and Zestoretic (lisinopril, hydrochlorothiazide fixed-dose combination) - have lost their patent protection globally.
Atnahs will be paying an upfront payment of $350 million to AstraZeneca. The agreement, however, excludes the rights in the US and India, which were previously divested, and in Japan, which will be retained by AstraZeneca.
The British-Swedish multinational may also receive future sales-contingent payments of up to $40 million between 2020 and 2022.
The company will continue to manufacture and supply the medicines to Atnahs during a transition period.
Ruud Dobber, Executive Vice President, BioPharmaceuticals at AstraZeneca, said: “These are important established medicines, and the divestment to Atnahs ensures they will continue to be available to patients. This transaction supports our strategy to realise value from our portfolio of non-core mature brands, enabling further investment in new medicines.”
Basildon-based Atnahs is part of the Waymade group run by Vijay and Bhikhu Patel.
