Grünenthal has continued its expansion splurge, acquiring Valinor Pharma and its lone commercial product Movantik (naloxegol), a treatment for opioid-induced constipation (OIC), for $250 million.
In gaining the Chicago-based company, Grünenthal bolsters its footprint in the United States, which is “the most important growth market” for the company, CEO Gabriel Baertschi said in a release.
Since 2017, pain relief specialist Grünenthal spurred its growth by pouring more than 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) into M&A activity, the company said.
Movantik generated gross sales of more than $200 million in the U.S. in 2023. Outside of the U.S., the oral treatment is branded as Moventig. In November of 2022, Grünenthal acquired European rights to Moventig—and a dozen other drugs—as part of a joint venture with Tokyo-based pharma Kyowa Kirin. The German company now owns rights to Movantik worldwide, excluding Canada.
AstraZeneca earned FDA approval for Movantik in 2014 before selling off its U.S. rights to North Carolina-based RedHill Pharma in 2020. RedHill extended the exclusivity of Movantik in the U.S. until 2030 by making settlement deals with generic drugmakers Aurobindo, Apotex and MSN Pharmaceuticals.
Last year, RedHill turned over the rights to Movantik to HealthCare Royalty (HCRx) in exchange for extinguishing RedHill’s debt.
Under a 2024 deal, Valinor became a marketing partner for the medicine, according to HCRx's updated list of investments (PDF).
Grünenthal, for its part, operates in approximately 100 countries and employs 4,400 people. It reported revenue of 1.8 billion euros ($2 billion) last year, a 10% increase from 2022.
Grünenthal’s expansion push featured a 2022 aquisition of Bayer’s hypogonadism drug Nebido for 500 million euros ($500 million). Before that, Grünenthal snapped up dermal pain patch Qutenza from Acorda Therapeutics and the rights in some geographic areas to AstraZeneca drugs Vimovo (arthritis), Crestor (cholesterol), Zomig (migraine) and Nexium (heartburn).
Last week, Grünenthal said it was investing more than 80 million euros ($87 million) to update its manufacturing facilities in Chile and Ecuador. It is the largest outlay the company has dedicated to a manufacturing project in more than 30 years, it said.