BRIEF—Janssen to drop rights to simeprevir effective June 2018

Swedish drugmaker Medivir says that Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a unit of US healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson, has decided to terminate the license that it holds for hepatitis C drug simeprevir due to Janssen's assessment of market demand.

The termination of the license will become effective in June 2018 and Medivir will continue to receive royalties on any remaining sales of Olysio/Sovriad (simeprevir) that Janssen will make until that time. Medivir will seek to identify potential commercialization partners for specific territories where it believes there may be a market opportunity.

Medivir's royalty on the global sales of simeprevir in the first three quarters of 2017 were 13.7 million Swedish kronor ($1.6 million) 7.7 million kronor and 4.1 million kronor, respectively.