INCHEON, South Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Celltrion (KRX:068270) has completed the acquisition of select primary care assets from Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (“Takeda”) in Asia Pacific, igniting efforts to strengthen its R&D capability in the global small molecule pharmaceuticals business.

In June, the firms announced an agreement under which Celltrion would acquire 18 "Primary Care" product assets in the Asia Pacific area for a total of USD 278 million inclusive of milestone payments from Takeda. Celltrion proceeded with the acquisition process through its newly established subsidiary in Singapore, "Celltrion Asia Pacific Pte, Ltd."¹ ("Celltrion APAC").

Upon completion of the acquisition, Celltrion APAC will assume the ownership of the rights to patents, trademarks, and sales of 18 products sold in 9 markets including South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia.

The 18 products include prescription medicines such as Nesina (diabetes), Actos (diabetes), and Edarbi (hypertension) which were developed for global market, as well as OTC (Over-the-counter) products well known to consumers such as Whituben (cold remedy). Nesina and Edarbi in particular are expected to contribute to a stable revenue growth as the product patents will be protected until 2026 and 2027, respectively.

Celltrion Pharm, a Celltrion subsidiary, will be a primary domestic distributor, while Celltrion Healthcare will distribute internationally, leveraging its sales networks in Southeast Asia and Australia. Celltrion has entered into a manufacturing and supply agreement with Takeda who will continue to manufacture the divested products for stable product supply and some of the products for local and international market will be manufactured at Celltrion Pharm’s cGMP production facilities in future.

The acquisition provides Celltrion group an opportunity to strengthen its small molecule pharmaceutical product portfolio and progress towards a market leading position as a global biopharmaceutical company.

Celltrion group also expects this transaction to help position itself as a stable supplier of high-quality, made-in-Korea original drugs and contribute to the reinforced financial strength of the national health system.

Based on its own R&D capacities and to-be acquired product patents, Celltrion plans to speed up the development of new medicines such as extended-release drugs and compound drugs, as well as biosimilar insulins to complete the portfolio of diabetic and hypertensive pipelines.

Celltrion CEO Kee Woosung said "With the successful acquisition of select primary care and OTC product assets from Takeda in Asia Pacific Celltrion has set an important opportunity to develop additional new drugs and expand its market share in the region," and "Celltrion will also do its best to secure a leading position in the Asia Pacific market and provide high quality medical products in the region."

About Celltrion, Inc

Headquartered in Incheon, Korea, Celltrion is a leading biopharmaceutical company, specializing in research, development and manufacturing of biosimilar and innovative drugs. Celltrion strives to provide more affordable biosimilar mAbs to patients who previously had limited access to advanced therapeutics. Celltrion received FDA and EC’s approval for Inflectra® and Remsima®, respectively, which is the world’s first mAb biosimilar to receive approval from a regulatory agency in a developed country. Also Celltrion received FDA and EC’s approval for Truxima® and Herzuma®. Its products are manufactured at state-of-the-art mammalian cell culture facilities, designed and built to comply with the US FDA cGMP and the EU GMP guidelines.

¹ Celltrion Asia Pacific PtE. Ltd.

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