Lacosamide

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter and will not weigh on UCB’s 2024 financial guidance, the company explained in a release. Restructuring seems to be the name of the game for many large drugmakers these days, and Belgium-based UCB is no exception.Early Monday, UCB revealed that it’s selling off its mature neurology and allergy business in mainland China to local healthcare asset manager CBC Group and Abu Dhabi-based investment firm Mubadala. UCB is in line to receive $680 million from the transaction, which covers the seizure drugs Keppra and Vimpat, Neupro for Parkinson’s disease and restless leg syndrome, and the allergy meds Zyrtec and Xyzal. UCB is also pawning off a manufacturing site in the city of Zhuhai in China’s Guangdong Province as part of the divestment deal, the company said in a release.  UCB says the deal will help more patients benefit from the company’s past innovations, noting that CBC and Mubadala are partnering to develop and operate a “new leading neurology” company at scale in China leveraging UCB’s drug portfolio and factory. "In the short term, UCB is exploring the launch of novel medicines in immunology, neurology, and rare diseases in China," the company’s CEO, Jean-Christophe Tellier, said in a statement. “Building on our 28-year presence in the country, we are committed to driving patient outcomes through continued collaboration with local partners and fostering innovation.” The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter and will not weigh on UCB’s 2024 financial guidance, the company added. UCB’s divestment follows a similar trend in which large pharmas have recently opted to enlist local partners to help commercialize their medicines in China. Pfizer in November inked a deal with Keyuan Pharma, granting the Shanghai drugmaker exclusive Chinese rights to distribute and promote its pneumococcal vaccine Prevenar 13, which goes by the name Prevnar 13 in the United States. Prior to that, GSK tapped Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products—the China marketer of Merck’s HPV short Gardasil—to distribute its shingles vaccine Shingrix in the country. Biogen and Sanofi have also reworked parts of their China businesses in recent months. Leveraging local partners in China has been on the upswing lately, partly because “there is increasing pricing and competitive pressure in the market, especially for mature products, leaving reduced [return on investment] for in-house commercial resources,” Justin Wang, head of L.E.K Consulting’s China practice, told Fierce Pharma last year.  Meanwhile, certain drugmakers—especially in the U.S.—are considering shying away from Chinese partners in the wake of the BIOSECURE Act, which aims to block certain Chinese biotech equipment and service providers from the U.S. market over national security concerns. Among U.S.-based life sciences companies, confidence in working with Chinese companies has plunged, according to a L.E.K. survey released earlier this summer. The issue is less pronounced with companies outside the U.S., where L.E.K. reported a milder decrease in confidence levels.

UCB is divesting Chinese rights to a handful of neurology and allergy drugs, along with a manufacturing site in Zhuhai, with the aim of bringing newer products to the country’s market. Asset management firm CBC Group and investment company Mubadala will pay $680 million to purchase five products: seizure medicines Keppra (levetiracetam) and Vimpat (lacosamide), allergy treatments Zyrtec (cetirizine) and Xyzal (levocetirizine), as well as the Parkinson’s disease transdermal patch Neuopro (rotigotine). Altogether, the five drugs brought in €131 million ($146 million) in net China sales last year. The deal is expected to close next quarter, after which CBC and Mubadala will create a neurology-focussed company based in China to house some of the assets.New market potentialsWith the funds from the portfolio sell-off, UCB will explore launching some of its newer immunology, neurology and rare disease treatments in China, CEO Jean-Christophe Tellier said. While the Belgian firm didn’t disclose which products it’s assessing, some likelies include autoimmune disease drug Bimzelx (bimekizumab-bkzx) and generalised myasthenia gravis (gMG) therapies Rystiggo (rozanolixizumab-noli) and Zilbrysq (zilucoplan).The gMG treatments were approved by the FDA in 2023, part of UCB’s efforts to cover the spectrum of needs among patients with the rare disease, and seemed to be well-received by US neurologists. For more, see Physician Views Results: UCB’s Zilbrysq set for brisk uptake in myasthenia gravis.Meanwhile, the company has been racking up European clearances for Bimzelx, which now boasts approvals for hidradenitis suppurativa, psoriatic arthritis, axial spondyloarthritis and plaque psoriasis. Thus far, the latter indication is the only for which Bimzelx has received a green light from the FDA, though the IL-17A/IL-17F-targeting antibody has generated excitement across the immunology landscape. For related analysis, see Spotlight On: Four key trends shaping the psoriasis treatment landscape; Spotlight On: How emerging agents could reshape the HS treatment landscape; and Spotlight On: Five trends to follow in the psoriatic arthritis treatment landscape.