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Eli Lilly and Co. has sold the rights to sell the diabetes drug Actos in seven countries to Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Asia’s biggest drugmaker, Bloomberg News reported this morning.
Takeda will sell Actos in Canada, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Turkey, a company spokesman told Bloomberg yesterday.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Takeda developed Actos in the late 1990s, but has relied on Indianapolis-based Lilly to market the drug in those markets.
The Japan-based company already sells the drug itself in the United States, Britain and France.
Financial daily Nikkei said Actos had sales of $3.2 billion in the Americas alone in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2008.
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