Valeant completes sale of Dendreon to Sanpower for $819.9m

Canadian company Valeant Pharmaceuticals International has completed the sale of all outstanding equity interests in its subsidiary Dendreon Pharmaceuticals to the Sanpower Group for $819.9m. 

Under the deal, Valeant Pharmaceuticals will use net proceeds from the sale to permanently repay term loan debt under its senior credit facility. 

Upon closing the transaction, the company expects to pay down $5bn in debt from the sale proceeds and free cash-flow within 18 months after next month. 

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International chairman and chief executive officer Joseph Papa said: "We continue to deliver on our commitments to reduce debt and simplify our portfolio, while focusing resources on our core businesses.

"The proceeds from this sale along with the recently announced sale of the iNova business move us closer to paying down $5bn of debt from divestitures and free cash-flow, and we are confident we will meet and potentially exceed this commitment."

As estimated by Valeant, expected revenue and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) (non-GAAP) from the Dendreon business in the second half of this year would have been $170m and $65m respectively. 

In January, Valeant Pharmaceuticals’ affiliate entered a definitive agreement to sell the outstanding equity interests in Dendreon. 

The first and only commercialised product of Dendreon Pharmaceuticals is Provenge, which is an autologous cellular immunotherapy (vaccine) for prostate cancer treatment. 

Provenge received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in April 2010.