From its $4.1 billion deal with Bristol-Myers Squibb ($BMY), AstraZeneca will get more than control of the diabetes drugs the two currently share. It also will be picking up two U.S. manufacturing facilities, including one they only just acquired last year in their buyout of Amylin.
Bristol-Myers said today that the deal includes the sale of the former Amylin manufacturing facility in West Chester, OH. In about 18 months, AstraZeneca ($AZN) will then take control of the Bristol-Myers Squibb's plant in Mount Vernon, IN. According to BMS, AstraZeneca is expected to take on all of its employees that are part of their joint diabetes program.
The two companies have for some years had a joint effort on diabetes but Bristol-Myers has been looking to boost its cash position in the face of revenue issues and so is bailing out of the partnership. AstraZeneca will pay Bristol $2.7 billion upfront to take control of their shared diabetes treatments, and another $1.4 billion tied to regulatory approvals and sales milestones. The deal includes the oral medicines Onglyza, Kombiglyze and Forxiga. It also includes the treatments Bydureon and Byetta, which the two acquired with the buyout of Amylin last year for $5.3 billion.
Amylin was struggling with manufacturing issues some years back at the Ohio plant where Bydureon is manufactured that were cited by the FDA. As recently as September, the drugmakers were having to recall about 92,000 vials of the drug in Europe. The countries affected were the U.K., Germany, Romania, the Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden, Finland and Spain. The recall was issued over concerns the vials in the affected batches had not been fully filled after problems with one lot during manufacturing. Regulators and BMS said the risk to patients was low.
- here's the release
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