Valeant to sell Dendreon and some skin products

Troubled Canadian drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International (TSX: VRX) has entered into a definitive agreement to sell all of the outstanding equity interests in Dendreon Pharmaceuticals.

Under the terms of the transaction, Valeant will receive cash consideration of $819.9 million at completion from China-based conglomerate Sanpower. Valeant’s battered shares were up 12.77% at $17.31 in pre-market trading this morning.

Formerly acquisitive Valeant has been expected to make some divestments to defray its $30 billion debt burden, and in late 2016 had reportedly been in talks to sell its Salix subsidiary to Japan’s largest drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical (TYO: 4502) for around $10 billion, though talks seem to have floundered on price disagreement. Moreover, just yesterday Takeda announced its $5.2 billion acquisition of US drugmaker Ariad Pharmaceuticals.