Arcutis, Kowa part ways on US marketing partnership for Zoryve

Arcutis Biotherapeutics and Kowa Pharmaceuticals are cutting ties on their U.S. marketing partnership around Arcutis’ Zoryve, just two years into the five-year deal.

In 2024, Arcutis enlisted Kowa to leverage the latter company's 200-person U.S. primary care sales force to market Zoryve, a treatment for atopic dermatitis, plaque psoriasis and seborrheic dermatitis that comes in cream and foam formulations, to physicians and pediatricians. 

In doing so, the company aimed to expand the med’s reach to the some 7.4 million patients who receive treatment for these conditions outside of dermatology offices.

Now, less than two years later, the duo has “mutually agreed” to terminate their promotion agreement, Arcutis announced in a Jan. 26 press release.

“Our promotion agreement with Kowa has laid important groundwork for the promotion of Zoryve in the primary care and pediatric markets,” Arcutis’ CEO Frank Watanabe said in a statement. “In 2026, we are well-positioned to drive adoption and growth of Zoryve in the primary care market through incremental investments that we will scale over time, while maximizing the growth of Zoryve in dermatology.”

Kowa Pharmaceuticals America is the U.S. arm of Japan’s Kowa Company and holds similar U.S. marketing partnerships with Amarin for the hypertriglyceridemia med Vascepa and with AbbVie’s Allergan for the beta blocker Bystolic. When the company struck its Arcutis deal, then-CEO Ben Stakely said that adding Zoryve to its lineup “expands our offering and will enhance our ability to support patients.”

Through the termination agreement, Kowa will now end all of its Zoryve promotion and Arcutis will no longer make further payments to its former partner. The Zoryve maker does not anticipate the move will negatively impact its 2026 sales guidance, it added.

Arcutis is expecting 2026 net sales of its Zoryve franchise to land between $455 million to $470 million upon a targeted expansion of its dermatology sales force. The company’s bid to expand its plaque psoriasis market to children ages 2 to 5 is under review with the FDA and it expects to submit an application for the cream in infants during the third quarter of this year.

In addition to its dermatology sales force expansion, which should widen the team to 160 sales reps, the company now plans to launch a 30-person pilot sales team to scout a group of “high-value” primary care physicians and pediatricians, Jefferies analysts wrote in a Monday note to clients. 

Zoryve was first approved as a cream in 2022 and has collected four label expansions since then. As of 2025's second quarter, the med had locked down over 1 million prescriptions, the company said.

Arcutis snapped up $166.5 million in full-year 2024 sales after linking up with Kowa that July, with its Zoryve becoming the “most prescribed branded non-steroidal topical treatment” across its three indications, the company said last year. However, the sales impact of the Kowa partnership have ultimately been “small” or immaterial, according to Jefferies. 

Zoryve’s main selling point is its once-daily topical formulation that can be used “anywhere on the body and for any duration,” Watanabe has said.

Despite its breakup with Kowa, Arcutis is still pushing U.S. Zoryve marketing with the help of several celebrity endorsements.

Last year, the company tapped a celebrity spokesperson in professional football player Odell Beckham Jr., who uses the med to treat his seborrheic dermatitis. Using the tagline “a clear win for your skin,” the partnership aims to raise awareness of both the product and the often-misdiagnosed condition.