The Pharmaceutical sector, once a powerhouse of billion-dollar M&A activity, has been relatively quiet in recent years. One exception was Takeda Pharmaceutical‘s (NYSE: TAK) takeover of Shire plc in 2018 for $81.5 billion.
In March, the Japanese drug maker was back again, although on the sell-side. Takeda announced the sale of a portfolio of select non-core products exclusively in Latin America, including over-the-counter and prescription pharmaceutical products sold in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Peru.
The buyer was Brazil’s largest pharmaceutical company, Hypera S.A., with a leading position in branded prescriptions, consumer health and branded generics.
The price was $825 million, which Takeda will use to deleverage its balance sheet following the Shire acquisition, with a target of 2x net debt/adjusted EBITDA within the March 2022 to March 2024 timeframe, the company said in a statement.
This is Takeda’s fifth divestment over the last 12 months, contributing to its goal to divest approximately $10 billion in non-core assets. It previously announced the sales of TachoSil® to Ethicon, part of Johnson & Johnson‘s (NYSE: JNJ) Medical Device division for $400 million in May 2019. In July 2019, it sold its dry-eye drug, Xiidra®, to Novartis (NYSE: NVS) for $3.4 billion.
Then came the sales of non-core assets to Acino for over $200 million in October 2019, in countries spanning Near East, Middle East and Africa, and a portfolio of non-core assets in Russia, Georgia, and a number of Commonwealth of Independent States countries to STADA for $660 million in November 2019.
The non-core products in this latest transaction generated revenues of approximately $215 million in FY 2018, driven by sales of key products such as Neosaldina®, Nesina®, and Dramin®.
Takeda’s aim is to focus on its chosen core business areas, in gastroenterology, rare diseases, plasma-derived therapeis, oncology and neuroscience.
