GSK sells US Wellbutrin rights for $510M
UK-headquartered Pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline is set to earn $510.0 million by divesting its US rights to the antidepressant Wellbutrin XL (bupropion HCl) to the US unit of Canada's Biovail, the company that originated the product and licensed it to GSK.
Under the terms of the deal, which is subject to Hart-Scott-Rodino regulatory clearance, GSK will transfer the US New Drug Application and trade mark to Wellbutrin XL for use in the USA, but will retain these for countries elsewhere, excluding Canada.
Wellbutrin started facing generic competition to the 300mg dose in 2006 and the 150mg tablet in the second quarter of 2008. The drug's sales in the USA amounted to GBP45.0 million ($67.4 million) in the first quarter of this year, down 70% on the like period of 2008. In the rest of the world, turnover was just GBP7.0 million for that period.
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