Celltrion Group has successfully sold the Asia-Pacific (APAC) “Primary Care” business rights, which it acquired from multinational pharmaceutical company Takeda Pharmaceuticals (hereafter Takeda) in 2020, after three years.
On Jan. 18, Celltrion concluded a contract with Dong-A Pharmaceutical for the sale of the Primary Care over-the-counter (OTC) drug business, amounting to about 37 billion won. The deal includes the transfer of business rights for four products, including the comprehensive cold medicine Whituben and the oral ulcer treatment Albothyl.
With this transaction, Celltrion Group successfully completed the restructuring of its business by smoothly finalizing the sale of both the Ethical Drug (ETC) and OTC business rights, totaling 247.1 billion won (US$185.5 million). The ETC division was previously sold at the end of last year to CBC Group, a global healthcare-focused private equity firm based in Singapore, for 209.9 billion won. Through these two phased sales, Celltrion Group has secured a cumulative profit of 141.2 billion won in just three years.
This sales profit is the result of continuous value enhancement through sales strengthening and business efficiency. Celltrion Group was able to secure cash liquidity and accelerate future growth by quickly identifying the right buyers for each business segment and promptly executing the sales process.
In this phased divestiture, Celltrion Group excluded domestic ETC products, maintaining the business rights for these products. Moreover, they secured the exclusive rights to supply domestically produced Nesina (a diabetes treatment) and Edarbi (a hypertension treatment) in the APAC region. This not only generates sales revenue but also promises ongoing additional income.