AstraZeneca acquires rights to market Crohn's disease medication.
+ Technology/Innovation
Jamie Barrand | Dec 17, 2015

AstraZeneca acquires rights to market Crohn's disease medication

AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, a London-based pharmaceutical company, has added to its portfolio a medication to treat Crohn's disease, which is an inflammatory bowel disease that also affects the gastrointestinal tract.

Patients with Crohn's disease often experience severe abdominal cramping, diarrhea and weight loss. The condition may also cause complications such as anemia, arthritis and bowel obstruction. Those who suffer from the disease also have an increased risk of developing bowel cancer.

AstraZeneca has paid $380 million to acquire the rights to market to Entocort (budesonide), a product of Dublin, Ireland-based health care products manufacturer Perrigo Co. Entocort is a medication sold in capsule form that is indicated for the treatment of gastric conditions such as Crohn's disease.

The agreement was necessary because medications used to treat digestive tract conditions such as Crohn's are outside AstraZeneca's areas of focus -- therapies for the treatment of respiratory, inflammatory, autoimmune, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and infections, as well as oncology and neuroscience.

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