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Amryt Pharma spreads influence to Russia and Balkans
Amryt Pharma announced on Thursday that it has signed an agreement with Aegerion Pharmaceuticals to "significantly expand" its exclusive licence agreement to sell its specialist cholesterol product Lojuxta.
The biopharmaceutical firm's agreement with Aegerion, a subsidiary of Novelion Therapeutics, will see Amryt gain access to up to 450 extra patients after expanding its reach into Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States ("CIS"), as well as the non-EU Balkan states.
This is a boost of approximately 25% to the number of addressable patients in Amryt's territories, which previously comprised of the European Economic Area, Middle East and North Africa, Switzerland, Turkey and Israel.
Lojuxta is a treatment for a rare and life threatening disease called Homozygous Familial Hypercholesterolaemia which causes extremely high blood LDL cholesterol levels, leading to aggressive and premature narrowing and blocking of arterial blood vessels.
Jeff Hackman, chief operating officer of Novelion, said: "We are pleased to extend our licence agreement for Lojuxta with Amryt. Amryt has been an active partner helping to bring this important treatment to adult HoFH patients living with this very rare disorder."
In 2017 Amryt generated revenues of 11.9m from sales of Lojuxta, representing a 65% increase on the run rate from when Amryt initially in-licenced the Lojuxta business.
Joe Wiley, chief executive of Amryt Pharma, said: "Following closely on from our market expansion in the Middle East, these new markets, with their significant increase in total addressable patients, assist us in this goal and will allow us to make Lojuxta available to HoFH patients for the first time in the Russian Commonwealth, the surrounding states, and the non-EU Balkan states."
As of 0900 BST, Amryt Pharma's shares were up 1.41% at 17.95p.