Valeant Pharmaceuticals International sold its hepatitis C drug Infergen's US and Canadian rights to Three Rivers Pharmaceuticals, LLC for $91 million. Under the terms of the definitive agreement that have been signed by the two companies, Three Rivers will be assigned all United States and Canadian rights to Infergen and will acquire the remaining Infergen inventory from Valeant. The transaction is expected to close during the first quarter of 2008.
Three Rivers will receive $70.8 million in cash upon closing, and upto $20.5 million in two non-contingent payments over the following eighteen months.
"The sale of Infergen to Three Rivers is an important step forward in executing our strategy of simplifying our operations," said Timothy C. Tyson, president and chief executive officer, Valeant. "We believe that by focusing our resources on products and regions where we have the greatest potential for market share growth and profitability, we will be able to improve our margins and yield better long-term shareholder value."
"We are thrilled to add Infergen to our growing portfolio of antiviral agents," said Donald J. Kerrish, RPh, president and chief executive officer, Three River. "This acquisition further promotes Three Rivers' continuous strategy to expand its product offerings through product acquisition and internal product development in highly specialized therapeutic disease categories like hepatitis C."
Infergen, or consensus interferon, is a bio-optimised, selective and highly potent type 1 interferon alpha originally developed by Amgen and launched in the United States in 1997. It is currently indicated as monotherapy for the treatment of adult patients suffering from chronic hepatitis C viral infections with compensated liver disease and is dosed three times per week.
According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 3.9 million Americans (1.8 percent) have been infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV). HCV causes an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 deaths annually in the United States and is the leading cause of the need for liver transplants. The prevalence of HCV is increasing and approximately half of all patients with compensated liver disease do not respond to first-line treatment. There are approximately 250,000 of these non-responder patients currently in the US and the number is growing by an estimated 50,000 each year.
Alpha interferons, including Infergen, cause or aggravate fatal or life-threatening neuropsychiatric, autoimmune, ischemic, and infectious disorders. Patients should be monitored closely with periodic clinical and laboratory evaluations. Patients with persistently severe or worsening symptoms of these conditions should be withdrawn from therapy. In many, but not all cases, these disorders resolve after stopping Infergen therapy. The most common side effects are flu-like symptoms (i.e., headache, fatigue, fever, myalgia, and rigors).
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International is a global, research-based specialty pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures and markets products primarily in the areas of neurology, infectious disease and dermatology.
Three Rivers Pharmaceuticals is a privately held company headquartered in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania and focuses in specialized therapies like Hepatitis C. The company's mission is to develop, manufacture, and market the highest quality branded and generic drug products for patients with serious diseases.