Allergan to sell US distribution unit Anda to Teva for $500 mn

Irish pharmaceutical company Allergan Plc yesterday struck a deal to sell its distribution business Anda Inc  to Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd for $500 million.

The sale comes just a day after Teva completed its $40.5-billion acquisition of Allergan's generic unit, following US regulatory approval a week ago (See: US antitrust regulator approves Teva-Allergan $40.5 bn generic deal).

As part of the Anda deal, Teva will acquire three distribution centers in Mississippi, Florida, and Ohio, with a total of over 650 employees.

Allergan said  until the transaction is completed, expected in the second half of 2016, that it will continue to operate Anda in a "business-as-usual mode".

For the second quarter of 2016, Anda is expected to generate revenues of around $375 million excluding sales of Allergan's branded products and approximately $0.05 in earnings per share (EPS).

For the full year 2016, Anda is expected to generate around $1.5 billion in third-party net revenue and approximately $0.15 in EPS.

Anda is the fourth-largest distributor of generic drugs in the US.  It distributes generic, brand, specialty and over-the-counter pharmaceutical products from more than 300 manufacturers to retail independent and chain pharmacies, nursing homes, mail order pharmacies, hospitals, clinics and physician offices.

Anda's three largest-generic drugs distributors in the US are AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson Corp.

Allergan had earlier planned to exit the generic pharma business and focus on developing new drugs and use the proceeds of the sale of generic business to pay down part debt it had accumulated during its rapid expansion and also help in making big ticket acquisitions in the future.

"For Allergan, this divestiture continues our evolution as a focused branded Growth Pharma leader, powered by growing leadership positions across our seven therapeutic areas, developing and bringing to market innovative therapies from our industry leading pipeline, simplified operating structure and adding new development programs through our Open Science R&D model." said Brent Saunders, CEO and president of Dublin-based Allergan.

''Anda is a natural fit into our business in general and our extensive supply chain network in particular,'' said Siggi Olafsson, president & CEO of Teva Global Generic Medicines.

''We believe Anda is truly a unique company which further enhances the offerings that Teva can provide. This strategic move enables us and our customers to improve capabilities and flexibility given the changes the pharmaceutical industry is currently undergoing, in order to provide access to more patients throughout the country, he added.