Yahoo Finance Novartis' (NVS) Unit to Acquire Astellas' Rights of Mycamine
Novartis NVS announced that its generic arm, Sandoz, has signed an agreement to acquire worldwide product rights for the leading systemic antifungal agent Mycamine (micafungin sodium, Funguard in Japan) from Astellas.
Mycamine is indicated for the treatment of invasive candidiasis and espophageal candidiasis, which are currently both on the rise with a higher occurrence of associated hospital outbreaks, as well as the prevention of candida and aspergillus infections in patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
The transaction will close in the first half of 2023.
The acquisition will broaden Sandoz’s hospital offering and leading anti-infectives portfolio.
Astellas reported Mycamine sales of $135 million for the year ending Mar 31, 2022.
Shares of Novartis have gained 7.7% in the past year compared with the industry’s increase of 15.5%.
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Novartis earlier announced plans to spin off Sandoz into a new publicly traded standalone company following a strategic review. Due to industry-wide price competition among generic pharmaceutical companies and the consolidation of buyers, Sandoz experienced significant declines in sales and profits, particularly in the United States. The spin-off is likely to be completed by the first half of 2023.
The separation will enable Novartis to better focus on its legacy pharmaceutical business. Novartis had earlier spun off its eye care division, Alcon, into a new company. Novartis was also looking to sell its ophthalmology and respiratory franchises.
Novartis has been looking to transform its business for quite some time now and had earlier stated that it would focus on strengthening its position in five core therapeutic areas (Hematology, Solid Tumors, Immunology, Neuroscience and Cardiovascular).
Novartis is shifting its portfolio of medicines toward biologics and technology platforms. Novartis has prioritized three newer platforms – gene & cell therapy, radioligand therapy and xRNA – for continued investment in new R&D capabilities and manufacturing scale, in addition to two established platforms in chemistry and biotherapeutics.
Novartis currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A couple of better-ranked stocks in the large-cap pharma space are Novo Nordisk NVO and Sanofi SNY. Both the stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Earnings estimates for Novo Nordisk for 2022 and 2023 have increased by 11 cents and 15 cents, respectively, over the past 60 days. NVO surpassed earnings estimates in three of the trailing four quarters and missed on one occasion. Novo Nordisk witnessed an earnings surprise of 3.09% on average.
Earnings estimates for SNY for 2022 and 2023 have increased by 30 cents and 10 cents, respectively, over the past 60 days. SNY surpassed earnings estimates in all of the trailing four quarters. SNY witnessed an earnings surprise of 9.50% on average.
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