Mylan to buy rights to Pfizer respiratory products

Published: 9-Nov-2011

Includes global rights to generic Advair Diskus and Seretide Diskus


Mylan, a US manufacturer of generic and specialist pharmaceuticals, has agreed to buy respiratory products from Pfizer, including the rights to a generic version of GlaxoSmithKline's Advair Diskus and Seretide Diskus asthma treatment.

Canonsburg, PA-based Mylan also gains the rights to Pfizer’s dry-powder delivery platform to develop additional branded and generic pharmaceutical products, as well as to other Pfizer compounds currently in various stages of development.

Mylan will pay Pfizer US$17.5m at completion, which is expected by the end of the year, and will be eligible for additional payments, including profit sharing.

The firm says it will employ key members of the former Pfizer respiratory inhalation development team based at Discovery Park in Sandwich, Kent, UK, where Mylan will establish a respiratory development division. Some employees will also be based in Cambridge, UK.

Mylan gains exclusive marketing rights to the generic equivalent of Advair Diskus and Seretide Diskus in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and in the EU and European Free Trade Association countries. In the rest of the world, Mylan and Pfizer will have co-promotion rights to the product. All other financial terms and product details remain confidential.

Robert Coury, chairman and ceo of Mylan, said the acquisition fills ‘an important gap in our product portfolio and builds a truly world-class respiratory franchise for Mylan’.

Mylan president Heather Bresch added that the company intends to use the Advair delivery platform and scientific expertise to develop additional products, building on the capabilities and assets that the firm has in place at its Dey Pharma specialist pharmaceutical division headquartered at Basking Ridge, NJ, for the development of oral inhalation products for nebulisation for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD).

Dey Pharma currently markets Perforomist Inhalation Solution and a combination product is under development. Dey also has expertise in the treatment of severe allergic reactions through its Epipen auto-injector product.

According to IMS Health, the global respiratory asthma and COPD prescription market is valued at more than $34bn and is averaging 7% growth a year. More than 50% of this market is expected to lose patent protection by the end of 2016, including several blockbuster products, many of which are inhaler based.

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