Almirall looks for new M&A to continue expanding in the dermatology market

Spain’s leading drugmaker Almirall (ALM: MC) discussed its strategy with The Pharma Letter’s local correspondent, explaining why it has moved out of the respiratory sector to focus on dermatology.

“When we hit the market with Eklira (aclidinium), competition in the respiratory sector was stiff from big pharmaceutical companies. Along with this was the austerity in the pharmaceutical sector in Spain. Despite the difficulties, we were doing well but at a very high cost. That was when we took the decision to transfer the rights of our respiratory franchise to AstraZeneca [LSE: AZN]."

Almirall sold the franchise to the Anglo-Swedish pharma major for an initial $875 million and up to $1.22 billion in development and other sales-related milestones (The Pharma Letter November 3, 2014). The Spanish firm says it is now looking for new acquisitions to grow its dermatology business that provided 43.1% of total sales according to the last full year 2015 results, from 37% in 2014.