Croatia's Pliva in Development Deal With Australia's Mayne Group

The pharmaceuticals arm of Australian healthcare and generic drug company Mayne Group has announced a EUR21mn (US$27.73mn) development deal with Croatia's Pliva. The agreement envisages that Pliva will develop and produce two biogeneric products in the oncology and renal therapies segments, namely the hormone erythropoietin and granulocyte colony stimulating factor.

The agreement will award exclusive sales, marketing and distribution rights for the two products to Mayne in Western Europe, as well as certain Asian and Middle Eastern markets. Pliva will have the rights for Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the Americas and Japan. The two products are currently produced by US-based biotechnology company Amgen as Epogen and Neupogen.

Mayne has indicated that the deal is representative of its strategy to focus on biologically originated products, as fewer patent expiries are expected on drugs based on medicinal chemistry in the coming years. The Australian company has also admitted that production of such drugs may be beyond its present technical capabilities. Pliva, Central Europe's largest generics company by sales, is likely to welcome the deal, as the US patent on its leading ethical antibiotic azythromicin is due to expire later this year.