January 11, 2005
German pharmaceutical group Bayer HealthCare announces plans to purchase back the rights to market male impotence drug Levitra outside the U.S. from British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline PLC.
On January 10, Willkie client German pharmaceutical group Bayer HealthCare announced plans to purchase back the rights to market male impotence drug Levitra outside the U.S. from British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline PLC, which had acquired the rights from Bayer in 2001. Bayer will pay $271.4 million (€208 million) for the rights and expects the deal to increase earnings in 2006. This agreement impacts major markets in Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa, Latin America and Canada where the product is currently co-promoted by Bayer and GSK. The deal was widely reported in the international press, including The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. The January 11 edition of The Daily Deal notes that Paris partner Eduardo Fernandez represented Bayer in this transaction. Bayer HealthCare AG, a subgroup of Bayer AG with sales of approximately €8.9 billion in 2003, is one of the world’s leading innovative companies in the health care and medical products industry.
