After a brief stint in the antidote business, Boston Scientific has moved to hive off the specialty pharmaceuticals division it picked up through last year’s $4.2 billion acquisition of British oncology devicemaker BTG.
A new, $800 million cash deal will transfer the entire operation—which includes emergency remedies for snake bites and medical overdoses, plus five manufacturing facilities and about 280 employees—to the European pharma group Serb, through its subsidiaries Serb SAS and Stark International Lux.
"After acquiring BTG in 2019 for approximately $3.7 billion net of cash on hand, and following the close of this transaction, we will have divested the two BTG non-medical device portions—Pharmaceutical Licensing royalties in the fourth quarter of 2019 and Specialty Pharmaceuticals announced today—for more than $1 billion in net proceeds," said Boston Scientific’s executive VP and president of peripheral interventions, Jeff Mirviss.
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First announced just over two years ago, Boston Scientific hoped to transform its cancer care portfolio with its purchase of BTG, bringing in a new pipeline of treatment devices to complement its previous work in care delivery and diagnostic tools.
This included BTG’s TheraSphere microbead radiotherapy, under development for bone metastases and cancers of the lung and breast, as well as cardiovascular products in peripheral disease segments and venous interventions for treating pulmonary embolism.
"We continue to be very pleased with the performance of the core Interventional Medicines business, the primary driver of the BTG acquisition, which has delivered strong growth and is expected to exceed our original goal of $175 million in synergies," Mirviss added.
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The new deal with SERB is slated to close in the first half of 2021—but before it does, Boston Scientific expects to gain a total of about $210 million in 2020 revenue from its antidote franchises, as emergency rooms opt to maintain their stocks of CroFab, DigiFab and Voraxaze.
"We believe our capabilities and portfolio strongly complement those of SERB, and we look forward to this next chapter as we continue to positively impact the lives of patients and the people who care for them," BTG Specialty Pharmaceuticals President Anthony Higham said.