Special pharmaceutical company Mallinckrodt is selling its photopheresis business, Therakos, to CVC Capital Partners for $925 million.
Mallinckrodt manufactures both branded and generic drugs and bought Therakos in 2015 for nearly $1.33 billion.
The company said it will use the net proceeds from its deal with CVC to reduce its debt by more than 50%.
Under the terms of the agreement, key employees who work with Therakos will transition with the business and continue supporting the product and its stakeholders, according to a company press release.
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
Mallinckrodt bought the company nine years ago with an eye toward broadening its footprint in hospitals with a drug-device system and expanding its reach into immunotherapy through extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP).
Therakos is a fully integrated ECP delivery system for autologous immunomodulatory therapy. With approvals for use in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia and Latin America, the drug-device platform is used to treat a range of immune-related diseases.
CVC plans to further develop Therakos and its flagship product, the Therakos Cellex system. The firm intends to make additional investments in R&D, indication expansion and geographic expansion.
“We see significant opportunities ahead to expand Therakos’ indications, enter new geographies and bring this innovative treatment to more patients around the world. We look forward to working closely with the talented Therakos team and adding this best-in-class ECP system with an unparalleled efficacy, safety and tolerability profile to our portfolio of healthcare businesses,” CVC’s Cathrin Petty and Phil Robinson said in a statement.
“Today’s announcement underscores our commitment to executing on our strategic priorities and creating value for our stakeholders,” said Siggi Olafsson, Mallinckrodt president and CEO, in a statement. “This transaction provides the Therakos business with an ideal partner to invest in its continued growth, and we look forward to closely working with CVC to transition Therakos for the benefit of patients, healthcare providers, partners and employees. I thank the Therakos team for their ongoing commitment and dedication to improving the lives of patients.”
In October 2020, Mallinckrodt agreed to a $1.6 billion settlement with 47 states and territories to resolve claims over its role in the opioid crisis, Fierce Pharma reported. It also agreed to pay the U.S. government $260 million to absolve a claim that it underpaid rebates on Acthar Gel, a hormone treatment to relieve inflammation.
Facing legal and financial troubles, the company filed for bankruptcy. In September 2021, it reached settlements with creditors that would reduce the company’s debt by roughly $1.3 billion.
Mallinckrodt filed for bankruptcy again in August 2023 due to declining sales for key products. The company emerged from bankruptcy in November and said it reduced its total funded debt by $1.9 billion.
In an analysis of thousands of Mallinckrodt’s internal documents, a pair of researchers uncovered a host of strategies the pharma allegedly utilized to help sway doctors to prescribe its opioids.
Throughout the last decade, Mallinckrodt has faced thousands of lawsuits accusing it of engaging in misleading marketing tactics to boost sales of its pain pills. The company has denied all wrongdoing, but the resulting settlements and fines led it to file for bankruptcy twice, in 2020 and 2023.
A report published in The BMJ in June details two researchers’ findings from digging through nearly 900 contracts included in that trove of documents, which “reflect concrete efforts backed up by payments.”