ZENECA LICENSES DRUGS TO VHA INC

In what is described as a "multimillion-dollar" deal, UK-based Zeneca has licensed US company VHA Inc to market and distribute two of its products, the injectable sedative/hypnotic Diprivan (propofol) and the antibiotic Cefotan (cefotetan), to the latter's health care organizations under its own private label, VHA+PLUS. Both products are marketed in the USA by Zeneca's subsidiary Stuart.

The new agreement provides benefits to both organizations. For Zeneca, which now has US sales of L1.7 billion ($2.7 billion), it is expected to enhance sales of the two drugs within the largest health care network in the USA, it positions Cefotan favorably as the only VHA+PLUS second-generation cephalosporin, and should assure continued sales of the Diprivan brand until the end of the century. For VHA, the agreement significantly strengthens the VHA+PLUS anesthetic and antibiotic product lines. The agreement is for a five-year period which commenced June 1 and ends in 1999.