Belgium-based pharma company UCB has agreed to sell its generics subsidiary Kremers Urban Pharmaceuticals for $1.5bn.
The buyers are Advent International and Avista Capital Partners, both private equity firms with a healthcare focus.
UCB said it plans to use the proceeds from the sale to reduce debts and increase the company’s strategic investments.
Roch Doliveux, who is due to step down as CEO of UCB, said it was “another step for UCB to enhance and focus on our core business in neurology and immunology”.
Jean-Christophe Tellier, who has been picked as Doliveux’s successor, added: “Our growing core business and UCB’s progressing early and late-stage pipeline now allow us to focus even more on providing innovative solutions to patients living with severe diseases.”
The transaction was unanimously approved by UCB’s board of directors and is expected to close by the first quarter of 2015, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
Detlef Thielgen, UCB’s chief financial officer, said: “Kremers Urban has been an important enabler to build UCB’s core business. We thank our Kremers Urban colleagues for the excellent performance they have delivered.
“It’s now the right time from a value perspective to focus on our core business and to offer Kremers Urban further growth opportunities with two strong organisations that are well equipped to help Kremers Urban continue to grow.”