Lundbeck has been granted commercial rights to several Cephalon products in Canada and Latin America, strengthening the Danish group in those markets.
As part of the agreement, Lundbeck will register and commercialise several drugs which are currently available in the USA and/or Europe on behalf of Cephalon. These include the cancer painkiller Fentora (fentanyl buccal), the sleep disorder drug Provigil (modanafil) and its follow-up long-acting drug Nuvigil (armodafini), the chemotherapy drugs Treanda ((bendamustine) and Myocet (liposomal doxorubicin) and Trisenox (arsenic trioxide) for leukaemia.
Specifically, Provigil, which Lundbeck already promotes in Mexico, Nuvigil and Fentora, will all be marketed in both Canada and Latin America. Nuvigil is expected to be approved in those territories in 2012-2014, and has made a promising start – Cephalon banked US sales in the first nine months of 2010 of $127 million.
Treanda will be commercialised by Lundbeck in Canada, as will Trisenox and Fentora. A big earner already in the USA, Treanda will be filed during 2011. Ulf Wiinberg, chief executive of the Copenhagen-based firm, will add significant sales in Canada and Latin America from 2012. He added that “it is our belief that the clinical and regulatory risk is minimal as these products are already approved” in other markets.
The financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed, but Lundbeck is to pay double-digit royalties on sales.
