Celltrion completes transfer of Takeda-acquired products

Celltrion secures product license of key products in Korea in 1 year after acquiring Takeda’s products

Products that sold ₩70 billion’s worth in the previous year to be incorporated into Celltrion Pharm’s sales performance

(Clockwise from the left) Nesina, Actos, Edarbi, Albothyl, Whituben, Nesina Met (Pic=MFDS)

The transfer of rights for Takeda Pharmaceutical’s products that Celltrion acquired is now complete.

 

The license of OTCs and diabetes drugs that were sold under Takeda Pharmaceutical’s name has been changed to Celltrion Pharm.

 

According to the industry on the 26th, the ownership of the license for Nesina Act Tab 12.5/30mg has been changed from Takeda Pharmaceutical to Celltrion recently.

 

With the change, the company completed changing the license rights for drugs acquired from Takeda Pharmaceutical.

 

This completion comes in around a year since Celltrion acquired the rights for some Takeda pharmaceutical products in the Asia Pacific region.

 

In December 2020, Celltrion acquired the rights of 18 prescription drugs and OTCs in the Asia Pacific region for a total of $278.3 million (₩307.4 billion).

 

Under the deal, Celltrion Healthcare will own the license and be in charge of distribution and sales overseas, and Celltrion Pharm of distribution and sales in Korea.

 

Under the deal, Celltrion Pharm had been sequentially transferring the rights of Takeda products sold in Korea.

 

The DPP-4 inhibitor class ‘Nesina (alogliptin) series’ and TZD class ‘Actos (pioglitazone) series,’ and ARB class hypertension treatment ‘Edarbi (azilsartan)’ are some of the key products that have been acquired by Celltrion.

 

Also, the company is acquiring permits and rights for Takeda’s OTCs such as the cold remedy ‘Whituben’ and the stomatitis treatment ‘Albothyl.’ Celltrion Pharm secured the license rights of all acquired drugs other than Nesina Act 25/15mg·25/30mg, Actos Met, and Albothyl.

 

The company had sped up the transfer process since then and completed the acquisition of all the rights recently.

 

However, the diabetes treatment Basen and hypertension treatment ‘Madipine‘ were excluded from the transfer of rights.

 

Both products are developed by Takeda and the domestic licensing and manufacture of the products are handled by HK Inno.N in Korea.

 

The sales performance of the key products that were transferred to Celltrion is reflected as Celltrion Pharm’s performance.

 

Last year's performance of such products was estimated to be around ₩700 billion.

 

Data= UBIST

Based on UBIST results, the outpatient prescription of products that were transferred to Celltrion from Takeda Pharmaceutical last year amounted to ₩67.9 billion.

 

In detail, its Nesina series sold ₩30.9 billion last year, a 3.7% drop from the ₩32.1 billion of the previous year.

 

In the same period, sales of its Actos series also dropped 8.1% from ₩28.4 billion to ₩26.1 billion.

 

Last year, the Edarbi series maintained sales at a level comparable to the previous year with ₩10.9 billion.

 

Last year’s sales of OTCs like Whituben and Albothyl were not counted yet, but the prolonged COVID-19 crisis and the resulting contraction of the OTC market are expected to have slowed down the performance of the drugs as well.

 

An official from Celltrion Pharm said, “We have completed the transfer of rights for major products that we acquired from Takeda, and is planning to focus on expanding prescription sales in earnest from this year.”