STADA to early terminate license agreement with Sanofi for head lice lotion Hedrin

STADA Arzneimittel AG is advancing the internationalization of its OTC brand business. On January 12, 2018, the company reached an agreement with Sanofi on the early termination of the license agreement for its Hedrin products in Belgium, Spain, and Portugal. Sanofi had acquired these from the STADA subsidiary Thornton & Ross.

Now the STADA companies Eurogenerics (Belgium), Ciclum Farma (Portugal) and Laboratorio STADA (Spain) have taken over the commercialization of the head lice and nits products as from January 17, 2018. The nationally established brand names Silikom (Belgium), Piky (Portugal), and Neositrin (Spain), under which Hedrin is marketed in these countries by Sanofi, have been acquired, as have the associated Internet domains.

“Alongside biosimilars, the internationalization of successful products is one of STADA’s business areas with the greatest growth potential. Hedrin is the Group’s first truly pan-European product and demonstrates the path we would like to take with other strong products such as Fultium, ViruProtect or Ladival,” said STADA’s CEO Dr. Claudio Albrecht, explaining the reasons for the early termination of the sales agreement with Sanofi.

With a share of 18% in terms of packs sold, Hedrin is Europe’s market leader in products for the treatment of head lice. In addition to the domestic UK market, it is currently sold in 12 other European countries – in some cases under other brand names. Hedrin Once and Hedrin Protect&Go have been available in Germany since July 2017.

Image: The logo of the pharmaceutical company Stada Arzneimittel AG is pictured at its headquarters in Bad Vilbel near Frankfurt March 14, 2012. REUTERS/Alex Domanski