Valeant Pharmaceuticals has agreed to sell all of the outstanding equity interests in Dendreon Pharmaceuticals, headquartered in Seattle, Washington, to the Sanpower Group, a privately owned business conglomerate based in Nanjing, China, for $819.9 million in a cash consideration, to be paid to Valeant at the close of the transaction.

Valeant bought Dendreon in 2015 via a “stalking horse bid” in a sales process conducted under the US Bankruptcy Code, and the acquisition included the worldwide rights to Dendreon’s prostate cancer vaccine, Provenge (sipuleucel-T), and certain other assets. Provenge was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in April 2010.

Two years after the FDA’s approval of Provenge, Dendreon decided to sell one of its Provenge manufacturing facilities to Novartis. In December 2012, Dendreon sold the 173,100 square-foot manufacturing facility located in Morris Plains, New Jersey, for $43 million to Novartis. Dendreon had announced plans earlier in that year to wind down the manufacturing of Provenge at the Morris Plains facility in conjunction with a restructuring plan.

Valeant said it will use the proceeds of the sale of Dendreon to pay off debt. The sale to Sanpower is expected to close in the first half of 2017, subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of applicable regulatory approvals.

The sale of Dendreon follows Valeant’s announcement in January 2017 that it has agreed to sell its CeraVe, AcneFree and AMBI skincare brands to L’Oréal for $1.3 billion in cash. The CeraVe, AcneFree, and AMBI product lines have annualized revenue of approximately of $168 million. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017, subject to customary closing conditions.

Source: Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Sanpower Group, and Dendreon Pharmaceuticals