AstraZeneca sells rights to anaesthetics for $770 million

British drugmaker AstraZeneca today struck a deal worth up to $770 million (£530 million) with South African pharma firm Aspen Group, giving it the rights to seven of Astra’s anaesthetic medicines outside the US.

Aspen, Africa’s biggest generics drugmaker, is paying $520 million upfront for the products, which include general anaesthetic Diprivan and local anaesthetic Marcaine. An extra $250 million could be paid in instalments over the next two years, dependent on sales.

AstraZeneca will continue to manufacture and supply the seven anaesthetics, which are sold in more than 100 countries, including China, Japan, Australia and Brazil, and currently bring in revenues of $592 million a year.

Astra sold the US rights to the products to Abraxis, which is now part of Germany’s Fresenius, in 2006.

Astra’s chief executive Pascal Soriot said the deal would “extend the reach of our established portfolio to a greater number of patients through [Aspen’s] extensive commercial network”.

His new strategy sees Astra focus on new medicines in three main areas: oncology, respiratory, and cardiovascular and metabolic disease.

The deal comes a day after Aspen, which operates in 50 countries and employs more than 10,000, secured a €3 billion funding boost. It has spent more than $2 billion on acquisitions from pharma firms including GlaxoSmithKline and Merck over the past few years.

Shares in AstraZeneca slipped 42.5p or 1% to 3990p.