March 9, 2015
By Krystle Vermes, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Canadian healthcare company Concordia announced today that it has acquired commercial assets from Covis Pharma worth $1.2 billion. The drug portfolio from Covis contains 18 branded and authorized generic products with stable revenue.
Key products included in the transaction include Nilandron for the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer, as well as Dibenzyline, which treats pheochromocytoma. In its fiscal fourth quarter for 2014, Covis expects to receive up to $52 million in revenue from the products in its pipeline.
“Covis’ strong commercial momentum will have an immediate and material impact on our top and bottom line financial results,” said Mark Thompson, chief executive officer of Concordia. “In the longer-term, this transaction creates greater scale and diversification for Concordia, which should support the continued execution of our aggressive growth plans.”
The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2015. The Board of Directors of both parties have agreed to the transaction and given it their approval.
Concordia Continues to Grow
The company announced a similar acquisition designed to help Concordia’s bottom line in September 2014. However, this deal did not focus on another company’s portfolio, but rather a single successful drug.
Concordia acquired Zonegran, a treatment for partial seizures in adults with epilepsy, from Eisai Inc. for $90 million in cash and an additional $1.5 million in inventory. Zonegran has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and it’s often administered in 25mg or 100mg capsules.
“The acquisition of Zonegran for commercialization in the United States and Puerto Rico represents another advancement in the execution of Concordia’s legacy product strategy, which management believes will provide significant and sustainable revenue going forward,” said Thompson, at the time of the announcement.
Eisai, which developed the drug, focuses on oncology and specialty care. It is the U.S. pharmaceutical subsidiary of Eisai Company, Ltd. , which is based in Tokyo.
Concordia has several of its own drugs in its pipeline, including Kapvay for the treatment of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Kapvay, also known as clonidine hydrochloride, comes in the form of an extended release tablet. With Zonegran on its list of products, Concordia is now marketing six potential treatments in its pipeline.
BioSpace Temperature Poll
Vertex Pharmaceuticals made news last week when it terminated leases on three properties in Cambridge, Mass, that freed up 313,000 square feet of space in the Genetown area. The company has spent a significant part of 2014 consolidating its operations on the South Boston waterfront, leasing 291,000 square feet of office space at West Kendall Street in Cambridge’s Kendall Square. So we wanted to ask the BioSpace community: Is Boston going to be getting more biotech leases anytime soon, or fewer tenants?
