Bayer found a pill

Concern Bayer will expand its portfolio of drugs for the treatment of hemorrhoids with the development of the Russian “NovaMedica” based on nifedipine and lidocaine. The German company already holds about 40% of the market for such funds. Pharmaceutical market experts call the deal one of the rare ones: foreign companies do not often acquire rights to Russian medicines.

The German concern Bayer acquired the rights to sell the Russian original medicine for hemorrhoids based on nifedipine and lidocaine. The drug under the trade name Fissario belongs to the NovaMedica company (created in 2012 with the participation of Rusnano), Bayer will sell it under a different brand – Relifipin, and the drug itself will be produced in Germany.

NovaMedica registered fisario in April 2018. Phase I clinical trials were approved in 2015. The third phase of testing ended in 2017, registration took place in 2018.

The license agreement will be valid for 15 years. The partners did not disclose the amount of the deal.

The licensing agreement provides for sale and promotion worldwide, excluding Japan.

“Such a deal is not the first on the pharmaceutical market, although foreign companies are not often interested in Russian developments,” comments Sergey Shulyak, CEO of DSM Group. According to the expert, not many innovative products have appeared on the market recently, and market players, of course, want to replenish their portfolio with them. According to his estimates, the deal is likely to amount to about tens of millions of dollars.

Relifipin is not a unique drug on the global pharmaceutical market, says Nikolay Bespalov, Development Director of RNC Pharma.

Nevertheless, according to the expert, there are not so many examples of such transactions: one of the most striking precedents is the purchase by Recordatti of the rights to the Alfavit vitamin and mineral complexes and other brands of the Aquion company.

Drugs for the treatment of hemorrhoids for local use are quite an impressive group in terms of money, says the director, Mr. Bespalov. In 2020, according to RNC Pharma estimates, 24.7 million packages of such drugs were sold in Russia for 6.8 billion rubles. At the same time, 40% of sales in the segment were taken by the brand relief from Bayer.

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