Amgen and GSK end marketing agreement for osteoporosis drug Prolia

World leading independent biotech firm Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN) revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing yesterday that it is ending an agreement with UK pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK), under which the latter marketed Amgen's postmenopausal osteoporosis drug Prolia (denosumab) in some regions outside the USA.

The SEC filing stated that, on April 1, Amgen and GSK “entered into a Termination and Transition Agreement terminating in part and amending in part the Collaboration Agreement dated as of July 27, 2009 relating to the commercialization of denosumab for osteoporosis indications in certain geographic territories, by and between Amgen and GSK.”

The Transition Agreement terminates the Collaboration Agreement for all countries and regions of the collaboration territory (including the European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Russia and Mexico) except for Australia. All commercial activities assigned to GSK under the Collaboration Agreement other than those in Australia will be transitioned back to Amgen no later than December 31, 2014 (the period from the effectiveness of the Transition Agreement until the transition date.