The Celltrion Group on Tuesday announced the divestiture of primary care business rights in the Asia-Pacific acquired from Takeda Pharmaceutical in 2020, excluding domestic ethical drugs (ETC).

In 2020, Celltrion acquired the business rights in the Asia-Pacific region for 18 brands of Takeda Pharmaceutical.

The recent sale of the business rights will be divided into two parts, the ETC business in the Asia-Pacific region and the over-the-counter drug  (OTC) business, of which the ETC business rights contract has been signed first.

The total price of the ETC business is approximately 209.9 billion won ($161.3 million), which was valued at approximately 138 billion won at the time of acquisition in 2020, resulting in a return on investment of 71.9 billion won.

The sale price reflects the increase in value of the Celltrion Group's business since Celltrion acquired Takeda’s primary care business in 2020, including sales growth in the Asia-Pacific region, and the potential for the development of new drugs for these products, the Korean company said. 

The ETC business will be sold to CBC Group, a Singapore-based private equity firm specializing in global healthcare.

For the acquisition, CBC Group will establish an overseas special purpose company (SPC) called HP Bidco 2 Limited to carry out the acquisition.

Under the accord, Celltrion plans to finalize the sale process by March this year.

Celltrion Group will retain the domestic business rights to diabetes drugs Nesina and Actos, and hypertension drug Edarbi, which are the core assets of the primary care business and will continue to benefit from the domestic sales revenues of these drugs.

For the OTC business, which is in the process of being sold, Celltrion is in the stage of negotiations with a potential buyer to finalize the details of the agreement, which will further increase the return on investment for Celltrion Group.

"The sale of the business rights was a strategic decision based on our management principles of selection and focus, and as we look forward to full-scale growth with the launch of a unified Celltrion, including securing liquidity through early return of investment," said a Celltrion Group official. "The proceeds will be used to build a foundation for sustainable growth of Celltrion Group, including strengthening our new product portfolio."