Eusa Pharma focuses on biopharma with two strategic moves

Eusa Pharma, a British-based pharmaceutical company focused on oncology and rare disease, bought the global rights for Johnson & Johnson’s Sylvant at a price of $115m (€98m).

Sylvant is approved as a treatment for idiopathic multicentric Castleman’s disease – a rare condition that causes the lymph nodes to overproduce immune cells. The treatment is approved for use in 40 countries, including the US, South Korea and a number of EU countries.

“The acquisition of Sylvant represents a significant opportunity for Eusa Pharma. As the only approved treatment for this orphan condition, Sylvant highlights the importance of ongoing research and development in areas where there are few patients yet high unmet medical needs”,​ said Lee Morley, Eusa Pharma’s CEO, in a statement​.

Fully focused on pharma​

The deal came less than a week after Eusa had announced the sale of its critical care business to Serb Pharmaceuticals, headquartered in Belgium.

A spokesperson for Eusa clarified that the decision had been taken to complete Eusa’s transition into a focused biopharma business.

The exact financials of the deal were not revealed but the firm said Collatamp, a lyophilised collagen implant designed for site-specific delivery of pharmaceuticals, would be included as part of the deal.