Within the framework of the joint venture, Bioton will be responsible for the development and manufacture of insulin products, while Actavis will be granted an exclusive licence to commercialise those products under the Actavis brand throughout EU and USA, as well as in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Iceland, Japan, Kosovo, Lichtenstein, Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia and Switzerland. In Poland, both companies will offer the insulin products under their respective brands.

The agreement will cost Actavis Euros 55.5 million, of which Euros 22.25 million was to be paid upon signing on 30 January 2012. The remainder (Euros 33.25 million) is to be paid in instalments based on agreed milestones for the registration of Bioton’s recombinant human insulin.

Profits from the joint venture are to be shared 50/50 and Actavis expects that within seven years of launch of the insulin products sales will exceed Euros 1.5 billion.

Bioton has also signed memoranda of understanding with Actavis for the sale of insulins in 24 additional territories, including Australia and Turkey. Actavis will pay an additional consideration of up to Euros 1.9 million, including Euros 1 million at signing and the profits from the sale of the insulins in these additional territories will again be shared on an equal basis.

Actavis CEO Mr Claudio Albrecht believes the new alliance will create tremendous value for Actavis and Bioton and their respective shareholders, noting that ‘the recombinant and analogue insulins alone should add around Euros 900 million (US$1.2 billion)’ to the value of the Actavis enterprise. He commented that ‘thanks to the collaboration agreement with Bioton, we will be among the leading manufacturers of insulin, including analogue insulins.’

For the last two years, Bioton has been consistently increasing the sales of its products based on collaborations with leading global pharmaceutical firms such as Bayer HealthCare in China and GlaxoSmithKline in Russia. Mr Ryszard Krauze, Chairman of the supervisory board of Bioton, noted that ‘the cooperation with Actavis has a strategic importance for Bioton’.

Actavis and Bioton already have an agreement for the manufacture and sale of biosimilars via Bioton’s Switzerland-based biopharmaceutical company, Biopartners Holdings [1]. This new agreement serves to further cement Actavis’s position in the biologicals and indeed biosimilars marketplace.

Update (February 2014):

Bioton announced in a market filing that Actavis has now terminated the deal for a joint venture that was supposed to market Bioton’s insulin in the EU, Japan and the US. The termination of the deal is reported to be as a result of Actavis being taken over by Watson Pharmaceuticals.

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Reference

1.  GaBI Online - Generics and Biosimilars Initiative. Actavis plans entry to biosimilars market with Bioton agreement [www.gabionline.net]. Mol, Belgium: Pro Pharma Communications International; [cited 2012 Feb 3]. Available from: www.gabionline.net/Pharma-News/Actavis-plans-entry-to-biosimilars-market-with-Bioton-agreement