Leo to market AstraZeneca’s psoriasis treatment outside the EU
Denmark-headquartered Leo Pharma, a pharmaceutical company focusing on dermatological treatments, announced it has reached a sub-licensing agreement with Bausch Health Ireland Limited for brodalumab.
Leo Pharma already has a licensing agreement with AstraZeneca, the developer of brodalumab, under which the dermatology focused company has been supplying the product in 18 European countries, under the brand name Kyntheum.
Following the new agreement with Bausch, Leo will be the exclusive marketer for brodalumab in other markets such as Australia, Brazil, Egypt, Mexico, Russia and Saudi Arabia where, according to the company, there is a ‘significantly high’ unmet need.
Bausch will continue to hold the commercial rights for the US and Canada, while in Japan and other countries of the Asian market, the rights for brodalumab are owned by Kyowa Kirin. The product is distributed in the US under the brand name Siliq.
Answering about the interest in expanding the license, Joergen Damsbo Andersen, EVP, Region International at Leo Pharma told us that “since first acquiring the rights to brodalumab in the European Union, we have been open that we might be interested in acquiring additional rights in other countries.”
Additionally, Andersen told us that Leo Pharma aims to provide the treatment to patients that have not had access to it before.
“With our growing portfolio of topical and systemic treatments, our share of the global psoriasis market will grow,” Anderson added, however an estimation about the market value was not disclosed.
According to Andersen, Leo is currently in the process of preparing marketing authorization applications for the new markets, therefore the brand name under which the drug will be distributed in these markets is not yet confirmed.
Brodalumab received marketing authorization by the European Commission in July 2017. The drug is intended to block the biological activity of several pro-inflammatory cytokines involved in plaque formation, by binding to the specific receptor subunit on the cells of the skin.
Psoriasis affects an estimated 125 million people worldwide, including nearly 14 million Europeans.
