- Struggling biopharma Vivus on Tuesday announced an agreement to pick up U.S. and Canadian rights to digestive aid Pancreaze from Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen unit.
- The deal is the first of a planned set of product acquisitions by Vivus that are “designed to generate revenue and strengthen its financial position,” the company said in a statement.
- Vivus stock, which trades below $1 per share, jumped higher on news of the deal but the company is still valued below its holdings of cash and available-for-sale securities as of Dec. 31, 2017.
The obesity market is floundering and it’s taking companies with it. In March 2018, Orexigen Therapeutics went under, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and selling off all of its assets. Funding of $35 million from senior secured noteholders means that its diet drug Contrave (naltrexone/bupropion) will still be produced, however.
Other biotechs in the field have restructured to avoid a similar fate. Arena Pharmaceuticals ditched weight loss product Belviq (lorcaserin), moving its focus to pain and autoimmune disease. And now Vivus has picked up Janssen Pharmaceuticals’ Pancreaze (pancrelipase) delayed-release capsules in a first step to try to diversify its pipeline and turn itself around.
“Pancreaze serves as our initial product acquisition, one that will allow us to participate and be a meaningful product company in the global gastrointestinal marketplace …,” said Kenneth Suh, CEO of Willow Biopharma, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vivus, in a May 1 statement. “We are hopeful to acquire additional products and through product life cycle management, leverage the Pancreaze platform for further growth.”
Vivus currently has only two products approved in the U.S. — its struggling diet product Qsymia (phentermine/topiramate) and Stendra (avanafil), a phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5) inhibitor for erectile dysfunction. The company recorded a net loss of $10.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2017, as sales of Qsymia brought in just $8.9 million.
In order to secure new funds, Vivus has restructured a portion of its corporate debt and issued debt securities. According to John Amos, the newly-installed CEO at Vivus, the acquisition and the debt restructure demonstrate the company’s plan “to create a stronger and more financially capable Vivus.” Other new members of the company’s leadership team include Scott Oehrlein as chief operating officer.
“We intend to drive revenue in the future through innovative sales and marketing of our current product portfolio, disciplined product acquisition, strong product life cycle management and focused expense management,” Amos added.
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