BRIEF—Stada Arz recovers selling rights to Parkinson's drug

German drugmaker Stada Arzneimittel continues to advance its strategic reorientation.

On June 1, Stadapharm, the subsidiary focused on specialty pharmaceuticals, will take over the sale of APO-go (apomorphine) in Germany from Grünenthal.

Beginning October 1, Stada Nordic ApS will do the same in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland.

APO-go is a medication for the treatment of Parkinson's' disease, which in fiscal year 2017 had sales of 68.2 million euros, and was Stada’s best-selling product.

"In the future, the central nervous system (CNS) will be one of the focuses of our specialty pharmaceuticals area, along with oncology, diabetes, and ophthalmology. In light of this, distributing our current best-selling specialty pharmaceutical ourselves in as many countries as possible is a very important step," explained Stada chief executive Dr Claudio Albrecht.

"In addition to biosimilars, the internationalization of successful products is one of the business areas with the greatest potential for growth for Stada," added Dr Albrecht.

APO-go is located within Stada subsidiary Britannia Pharmaceuticals, and joined the Stada portfolio when Britannia was acquired in 2007.

It is sold by companies and partners of the Stada group under the names APO-go, Movapo and Apokyn in a total of 30 countries, including the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, as well as all European core markets.