AstraZeneca to sell Moventig’s European marketing rights to ProStrakan

ProStrakan agreed to pay AstraZeneca $70m upfront for the rights in the European Union as well as Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein.

AstraZeneca will also receive future tiered royalties on net sales as part of the agreement.

The deal does not include the transfer of any AstraZeneca employees or facilities. The companies will jointly make the strategic decisions on Moventig in Europe.

Moventig is a peripherally acting mu-opioid receptor antagonist for the treatment of OIC in adults who have had an inadequate response to one or more laxatives.

In clinical trials, Moventig was administered as a once-daily tablet and was designed to block the binding of opioids to opioid receptors in tissues like the gastrointestinal tract.

ProStrakan CEO Tom Stratford said: "Moventig is an excellent fit for our oncology and pain-focused sales teams across Europe and opens up broader opportunities to serve both cancer and non-cancer chronic pain patients with this innovative, first-in-class therapy."

AstraZeneca executive vice president of global product and portfolio strategy said: "This agreement is in line with our strategy to focus our resources within our three main therapy areas while unlocking value from the important medicines in our portfolio.

"ProStrakan’s significant expertise in the area of pain medication will ensure patients across Europe benefit from a first-in-class treatment."

AstraZeneca licensed Moventig from Nektar Therapeutics and developed it using Nektar’s oral small-molecule polymer conjugate technology.

In March 2015, AstraZeneca signed an agreement with Daiichi Sankyo for the co-commercialization of Movantik in the US.

Image: AstraZeneca’s maihara factory in Japan. Photo: courtesy of AstraZeneca.