Mylan Secures Rights to Aspen's Injectable Anticoagulants for $756M
Mylan now awaits the merger deadline for the acquisition of thrombosis drugs as a major addition to its Europe portfolio.
Mylan's president, Rajiv Malik, said that this high-dollar acquisition of a blood clot portfolio deal would allow Mylan to become the second largest supplier of these products to the patients in Europe. It will also expand their access to complex injectables.
About $756 million will be shelled out to acquire South African drugmaker Aspen Pharmacare's sterile injectable anticoagulants.
$310 million in cash will be paid upfront, and the remaining $446 million will be paid in deferred payment due by June 25, 2021.
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The acquisition of this deal will allow Mylan to gain access to products that generated $272.3 million from July 2019 to June 2020.
Subject to conditions including European regulatory clearances, the companies expect to close the deal by December 31, 2020.
Aspen will retain its licensing rights to the thrombosis drugs in emerging markets. Shares of Aspen went up 6 percent in off-hour trading, while Mylan stock rose a little over 2 percent following this deal.
With this acquisition, Mylan will continue to manufacture the anticoagulants sold under the brand names Arixtra, Fraxiparine, Mono-Embolex, and Orgaran.
No Impact on Debt Payoff Plan
Despite the delay caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic, Mylan will still push through with the planned megamerger with Pfizer's Upjohn generics unit.
According to Mylan, this additional acquisition will not overlap with the merger of Mylan and Upjohn, Pfizer's off-patent established business initiated in July 2019. This deal is also expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year. The merger will be called Viatris.
Mylan says that this transaction should not impact the $1 billion debt payoff plan in 2020. They are hoping that once Viatris goes online next year, its new products will generate a positive impact on the margins.
The merger of Mylan and Upjohn is the result of the U.S. generics industry suffering from losses in recent years due to the competition with manufacturers in lower- and middle-income countries like India.
During that time, Cowen's Ken Cacciatore, an analyst, did not believe that the Mylan-Upjohn deal would solve anything. However, he did believe that a standalone Mylan was absolutely broken.
Upjohn had been based in Shanghai to focus on making drugs for the emerging markets. They are responsible for products that once generated blockbuster sales such as the cholesterol drug Lipitor, the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra, and the painkiller Lyrica.
E.U. Gives Green Light for Merger
This merger has won the antitrust clearance from the European Commission, but certain conditions need to be met.
The European Commission noted that medicine divisions established by Mylan and Pfizer were spotted to have specifically 36 overlaps covering a dozen drugs in several areas such as cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and nervous systems, and the urinary tract leading to raised antitrust concerns.
E.U. regulators said they gave the green light to the merger after the pair agreed to sell some Mylan generic drugs across 20 countries in the European Economic Area and the U.K.
The merger was originally set to close in the second quarter but was held up due to regulatory complications as a result of COVID-19. Their goal is to close the deal this fourth-quarter and a fresh start for Viatris.
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Sep 08, 2020 09:54 PM EDT
