Eisai enters deals with Valeant and Minophagen

The European subsidiary of Japanese drug major Eisai (TYO: 4523) and PharmaSwiss, a division of Canada-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals International (TSX: VRX) have entered into an agreement to promote and distribute its metastatic breast cancer drug Halaven (eribulin) in Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovenia. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Eisai received European Commission approval for Halaven last year (The Pharma Letter March 25, 2011) and the drug is now available and reimbursed in a number of European countries. The company is currently working with Valeant to secure reimbursement of the drug in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) markets.

"This new partnership with Valeant means that access to Halaven can happen much faster in the CEE region, as Eisai does not need to establish locally based offices in each country. Eisai's entry into the CEE market is aligned with the company's wider strategy of increasing access to our medicines based on affordability, availability and adoption by making products available in new markets," said Gary Hendler, Eisai EMEA president and chief executive.