Print(PDF/112KB) Dec. 26, 2016 Licensing

Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma to Conduct Meropenem Business in Five Countries of South-East Asia and Hong Kong

Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Osaka, Japan; President: Masayo Tada; "Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma") announced today that it has entered into an agreement with AstraZeneca PLC. (Head office: London, U.K. ; "AstraZeneca") to change the territories of the business of meropenem, a carbapenem antibiotic, where the five countries of South-East Asia (Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia) and Hong Kong are returned to Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma. Meropenem was originally licensed to AstraZeneca for the world-wide territories except for Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan.

Based on this agreement, the two companies will work closely in order that Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma conducts the business of meropenem for these five countries of South-East Asia and Hong Kong.

As a result of the transaction, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma now conducts the meropenem business in countries/areas of East Asia (Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong) and South-East Asia (Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia), and expects to make a further contribution to global health by providing meropenem as an option for infectious disease therapy.

Reference Information (meropenem):

Meropenem is a carbapenem antibiotic discovered by Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma and developed as an antibiotic preparation for injection, which was launched in Japan in September 1995. This drug is widely used for various types of moderate to severe infectious diseases caused by gram-positive / gram-negative bacteria. This medicine is sold by Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma and AstraZeneca in more than 100 countries.
AstraZeneca entered into an agreement with Pfizer Inc. (Head office: New York, U.S.) in August 2016 to sell its late-stage small molecule antibiotics business, including meropenem.

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