Research and development across the medical as well as pharmaceutical companies will continue to remain rampant. Companies have been gaining exceptional competitive advantage out of these industry strategies which is also benefitting them and the people suffering from major health crises, like COVID-19.

In one such instance recently, a commercial stage biopharmaceutical industry- Basilea Pharmaceuticals- announced receiving a USD 5.26 million payment from its authorization partner, Pfizer Inc. for the commercialization or marketing authorization of an antifungal drug, Cresemba in the Russian Federation.

Isavuconazole, an intravenous and oral azole antifungal, which is being commercialized under the brand name of Cresemba, is currently promoted in more than over 40 countries worldwide, including the U.S, most of European Union member states, and others.

As per reliable reports, oral Cresemba, in Russia is approved in adults for the treatment of invasive aspergillosis and mucormtcosis for a patient pool for whom amphotericin B is considered to be inappropriate. However, the intravenous formulation are currently being studies under a separate marketing authorization application.

Commenting on the news, the Basilea Chief Executive Officer- David Veitch- stated that the company is extremely pleased to present a new antifungal for the Russian physicians. He quotes that the Cresemba commercialization would come as a handy tool for physicians in the region to prescribe to their patients suffering from invasive mold infections. Furthermore, this approval stands as a groundbreaking milestone in the worldwide commercial roll-out of the brand, as Russia is deemed to be one of the commercially important market outside of the United States, the European Union, and China.

For the records, Basilea, in June 2017, established a licensing agreement with Pfizer for the antifungal isavuconazole, in the parts of Europe, Russia, Israel, and Turkey which was further extended for China, and over 16 countries in the APAC region. Under the pact with Pfizer, Basilea is eligible for all sales and regulatory milestone payments of nearly $630 million, in line with receiving mid-teen royalties on in-market sales of the antifungal.

According to various sources, the overall in market sales of Cresemba amounted to about USD 200 million in 2019, which was more than 30% growth y-o-y.

Source credit: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/06/22/2050952/0/en/Basilea-receives-CHF-5-million-milestone-payment-related-to-marketing-authorization-of-antifungal-Cresemba-in-Russia.html