AstraZeneca Sells Rights to Two Cancer Medicines for $181 Million Up Front

   By Carlo Martuscelli

AstraZeneca PLC (AZN.LN) said Friday that it is selling the rights to two cancer medicines that have lost their patent protection for an upfront payment of $181 million, plus up to $17 million in royalties.

The British drug maker said it divested the rights to Arimidex and Casodex in a number of European, African and other countries to Juvise Pharmaceuticals. U.S. rights to the drugs were already sold in the U.S. previously.

The transaction is part of a broader strategy of exiting mature medicines in order to allocate more financial resources to develop drugs in the research pipeline, Dave Fredrickson, executive vice president of the oncology business, said.

Write to Carlo Martuscelli at carlo.martuscelli@wsj.com; @carlomartu

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 20, 2019 02:26 ET (07:26 GMT)

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