{"id":10124,"date":"2012-04-20T16:21:42","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T14:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/04\/update-1-aspen-buys-gsk-otc-drug-brands-for-263-mln\/"},"modified":"2012-04-20T16:21:42","modified_gmt":"2012-04-20T14:21:42","slug":"update-1-aspen-buys-gsk-otc-drug-brands-for-263-mln","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/update-1-aspen-buys-gsk-otc-drug-brands-for-263-mln\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE 1-Aspen buys GSK OTC drug brands for $263 mln"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Brands sold had 2011 sales of 60 mln stg<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* GSK says still intends to sell weight-loss drug Alli<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">LONDON, April 20<\/span> (Reuters) &#8211; GlaxoSmithKline has<br \/>\nagreed to sell a clutch of international over-the-counter<br \/>\nhealthcare brands for 164 million pounds ($263 million) to South<br \/>\nAfrica&#8217;s Aspen Pharmacare, Britain&#8217;s biggest drugmaker<br \/>\nsaid on Friday.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Net cash proceeds from the transaction are expected to be<br \/>\napproximately 135 million pounds and will be returned to<br \/>\nshareholders during 2012.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The sale is the latest move by GSK to fine-tune its consumer<br \/>\nhealthcare business and follows the divestment of other<br \/>\nover-the-counter (OTC) brands in North America and Europe.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The brands being sold generated sales of around 60 million<br \/>\npounds in 2011. They include the painkiller Solpadeine and<br \/>\nanti-stomach acid drug Zantac.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The net profit realised on the disposal in 2012 &#8211; after<br \/>\ndeducting transaction costs and a profit deferral of some 25<br \/>\nmillion pre-tax because Aspen is a GSK associate &#8211; is expected<br \/>\nto be 105 million before tax, or 90 million after tax.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>GSK added it continued to plan to sell its OTC weight-loss<br \/>\npill Alli. This process has been delayed due to supply problems<br \/>\nat a Roche factory in the United States.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Swiss company manufactures the active ingredient,<br \/>\norlistat, which is also the active substance in Roche&#8217;s<br \/>\nprescription-only drug Xenical. Alli is a low-dose version of<br \/>\nXenical.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>GSK first announced in February 2011 that it planned to<br \/>\ndispose of non-core brands sold primarily in North America and<br \/>\nEurope and representing about 10 percent of its consumer health<br \/>\nportfolio, in order to focus on priority brands and emerging<br \/>\nmarkets.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright\">\n<p>         \t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* Brands sold had 2011 sales of 60 mln stg * GSK says still intends to sell weight-loss drug Alli LONDON, April 20 (Reuters) &#8211; GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to sell a clutch of international over-the-counter healthcare brands for 164 million pounds ($263 million) to South Africa&#8217;s Aspen Pharmacare, Britain&#8217;s biggest drugmaker said on Friday. Net [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-10124","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}