Watson buys women’s health specialists
pharmafile | January 23, 2013 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Actavis, Uteron, Watson, women
Watson has completed the acquisition of Uteron Pharma, a Belgium R&D-based firm specialising in women’s health products.
The world’s third-largest generics pharma company, Watson has bought Uteron to expand into R&D-based pharma products.
The firm is responding to squeezed margins in the global generics market, and paid €4.25 billion ($7 billion) in April last year to acquire rival generics firm Actavis.
The newly-enlarged group will change its name to Actavis, but is looking to diversify away from being a purely generics company.
Uteron’s pipeline includes two drugs in late-stage development – one in contraception and infertility, and another being a novel oral contraceptive.
The firm is located in the Belgian city of Liege (in the French-speaking Walloon region) where it began life as a spin-off of the University of Liege.
The company has several other products in earlier stages of development, and Watson says the move will help boost its business in the medium to long-term.
Fred Wilkinson, president of Watson Global Brands and Biosimilars said the acquisition was the first step in fulfilling the firm’s promise to expand its patent-protected portfolio.
“This is a strategic acquisition of a solid pipeline, sound development expertise, and sufficient manufacturing capacity to generate value for shareholders within the next two years, and provide the potential of multiple global product introductions through the latter half of the decade,” said Wilkinson.
The company is paying $150 million in cash up front for Uteron, and up to $155 million in potential future milestone payments.
“The acquisition capitalises on the growing potential of the expanded global commercial footprint for our Women’s Health Brand franchise following the Actavis acquisition. As a result of the Uteron acquisition, Watson welcomes the opportunity to access resources within the Walloon region of Belgium, and acquires a valuable source of research and innovation.”
Uteron’s executive team includes co-chief executive and co-founder Stijn Van Rompay and CSO and co-founder Professor Jean-Michel Foidart, who will continue to manage Uteron.
Levosert is an Intrauterine Device (IUD) and is the company’s most advanced pipeline product. The drug is designed to initially deliver 20 mcg of levonorgestrel per day for long-term contraception and treatment of heavy bleeding, and is currently awaiting approval in several EU countries, with a potential launch in 2013.
The second late-stage product is Diafert, a non-invasive immunoassay kit for the assessment of oocyte (egg) quality during in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). Diafert has the potential to increase implantation success rates, meaning the treatment cycles of IVF could be reduced. Diafert is expected to obtain CE mark in the EU in the second half of 2013 and launch thereafter.
Meanwhile in Phase II development is Estelle, a new contraceptive product forecast for launch in 2018. Estelle contains a novel natural estrogen, estetrol, which the company believes will provide a prolonged half-life, a higher safety margin, less interference with liver and metabolic functions and an improved side effect profile. Estelle is being studied in combination with a progestin and will be marketed in a convenient dosing regimen.
Finally Uteron’s early-stage pipeline includes Vaginate, a treatment of vaginal infections, Colvir, for the treatment of premalignant Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) lesions of the uterine cervix.
The product development portfolio includes a hormonal IUD, a next generation oral contraceptives containing natural estrogen, a new generation of biochemical tests that will significantly increase in-vitro fertilisation success rates, and pharmacologic treatments for cervical dysplasia.
Andrew McConaghie
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