South Korea-based Boryung Corporation is boosting its global oncology foothold with a deal to take on Sanofi’s time-honored chemotherapy Taxotere (docetaxel) in nearly 20 markets for up to 175 million euros ($205 million).
The deal, which includes potential milestone payments worth 14 million euros ($16 million), encompasses Sanofi’s Taxotere business in 19 countries, including Korea, Germany, Spain and China.
Boryung will manufacture the drug at its plant in Yesan, South Korea, and sell it to the global market, allowing the company to emerge as a “global pharmaceutical company with a strong portfolio of legacy cytotoxic anti-cancer drug,” Boryung said in a Sept. 30 release.
“While the paradigm of anti-cancer treatment is evolving toward targeted and immuno-oncology therapies, the cytotoxic anti-cancer drug remains an essential foundation of anti-cancer treatment,” a Boryung official said in the company’s release.
The drugmaker hopes to maintain a “stable global supply chain” to ease recurrent shortages and supply disruptions of the med that can impact treatment.
Taxotere was first approved in the 1990s as a landmark cytotoxic agent, and today it remains widely used on its own and in combination therapies. The World Health Organization still lists it as an essential medicine for the treatment of early stage and metastatic breast cancer as well as metastatic prostate cancer. According to Boryung, Sanofi recorded global Taxotere sales of about 70 million euros ($82 million) last year.
Sanofi’s Taxotere revenues rapidly declined from blockbuster status after generics hit the market in 2010. These days, Sanofi considers the med a noncore asset.
Boryung, meanwhile, plans on boosting the drug’s value by focusing its R&D efforts on formulation improvements, combination strategies and potential new indications, CEO Jay Kim noted in the release. The latest buy builds on the company’s existing cytotoxic anti-cancer drug portfolio, which includes the Korean rights to Eli Lilly’s chemotherapies Gemzar and Alimta.