Roche and Meda, an international specialty pharmaceutical company based in Solna (Stockholm), Sweden, have signed an agreement for the sale of four Roche pharmaceutical products to Meda. The world wide product rights for Marcoumar (Anticoagulant), Torem (Loop diuretic), Tilcotil (painful musculoskeletal disorders) and Aurorix (Depression) are being transferred to Meda for a total amount of 120 million Euros. The transaction is expected to close in late 2008 and is subject to standard closing conditions.
The total amount of global sales generated by these products represents 0.3% of the Pharmaceuticals Divisionâs sales for Roche. With this divestment Roche further underlines its strategy of focusing on core products from its innovation-driven pharmaceutical and diagnostic pipelines which offer significant potential for high value creation, both for the patients and the company.
About Meda
MEDA AB (publ) is an international specialty pharma company that concentrates on marketing and market-adapted product development. Acquisitions and long-term partnerships are fundamental factors that drive the company's strategy. Meda is represented by its own organisations in 26 countries and has more than 1500 employees within marketing and sales. Medaâs products are sold in about 120 countries worldwide. The Meda share is listed under Large Cap on the OMX Nordic Stock Exchange. Find out more, visit www.meda.se.
About Roche
Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world's leading research-focused healthcare groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. As the world's biggest biotech company and an innovator of products and services for the early detection, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, the Group contributes on a broad range of fronts to improving people's health and quality of life. Roche is the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics and drugs for cancer and transplantation, and is a market leader in virology. It is also active in other major therapeutic areas such as autoimmune diseases, inflammatory and metabolic disorders and diseases of the central nervous system. In 2007 sales by the Pharmaceuticals Division totalled 36.8 billion Swiss francs, and the Diagnostics Division posted sales of 9.3 billion francs. Roche has R&D agreements and strategic alliances with numerous partners, including majority ownership interests in Genentech and Chugai, and invested over 8 billion Swiss francs in R&D in 2007. Worldwide, the Group employs about 80,000 people. Additional information is available on the Internet at www.roche.com.