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Hong Kong - Pfizer agreed to buy an antibiotics business from AstraZeneca for $72m as well as other pay outs, seeking to add to its pipeline of treatments intended to fight infections.
Pfizer will pay $550m to AstraZeneca when the transaction closes and make another payment of $175m in January 2019, according to a statement on Wednesday. In addition, AstraZeneca is eligible to receive as much as $250m in milestone payments, up to $600m in sales-related payments, as well as certain royalties.
Pfizer is buying AstraZeneca’s so-called small-molecule antibiotics, or those developed using traditional chemistry. The deal doesn’t include biotechnology products developed by AstraZeneca’s MedImmune unit.
The transaction will give Pfizer the rights to the medicine Zavicefta, which is intended to treat multi-drug resistant infections, including those resistant to certain antibiotics, an area of growing need.
Zavicefta received marketing authorization from the European Commission in June.
"We are committed to looking for ways to enhance our portfolio around the world where we offer patients and health-care professionals access to more than 60 anti-infective and anti-fungal medicines," John Young, group president at Pfizer Essential Health, said in the statement.
Shares of AstraZeneca fell 0.2% to 5 051 pence as of 8:24 a.m. in London trading.
For a number of the antibiotics, Pfizer is acquiring commercialization rights for international markets excluding the US.
The AstraZeneca agreement comes after Pfizer earlier this week announced an agreement to buy Medivation Inc. in a $14bn deal.
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