Servier Canada enters into an agreement with Daiichi Sankyo for factor Xa Inhibitor Edoxaban

LAVAL, QC, June 27, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - Servier Canada is pleased to announce the signing of a strategic agreement with Daiichi Sankyo Co., Limited (TSE: 4568). Under this agreement, Servier will commercialize the oral, once-daily anti-coagulant Edoxaban in Canada, if approved by the Canadian health authority, while Daiichi Sankyo will receive an upfront payment, regulatory and sales milestones payments as well as royalties on net product sales.

Edoxaban is a novel anti-coagulant treatment that specifically inhibits factor Xa of the coagulation pathway, highly involved in blood clotting.  Edoxaban is currently under review by Health Canada for the prevention of stroke and systemic embolic events in patients with non valvular atrial fibrillation, as well as for the treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE), including deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, and the prevention of recurrent VTE. This current filing is based on a worldwide clinical development program that includes two large phase III pivotal trials, Hokusai-VTE and ENGAGE AF-TIMI 48.

''Along with its worldwide clinical development program, Edoxaban will contribute daily to improve the prognosis and to alleviate Canadian patients suffering from these cardiovascular conditions'' underlined Frederic Fasano, Chief Executive Officer of Servier Canada. Estimations claim that non valvular atrial fibrillation affects about 350,000 Canadians, a number that is expected to increase as the population ages¹, and that VTE affects up to 45,000 Canadians per year².

"Today, I would like to pay a special tribute to our respective teams for making this important project a reality'' continued Frederic Sesini, Executive Vice-President of International Operations of Groupe Servier.

Ken Keller, President, US Commercial, Daiichi Sankyo Inc., also emphasized: "We are pleased to partner with Servier Canada, a well-established and respected organization with extensive expertise in marketing cardiovascular products in Canada."

Edoxaban has been approved in the U.S. as SAVAYSA^® and in the EU, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong as LIXIANA^®.

This contract is in line with Servier's leading role in efficient treatments for cardiovascular diseases, an area where the Group has always shown a strong expertise.

About Servier Canada

Servier Canada was created in 1978 and is the Canadian affiliate of Groupe Servier. It is the fourth largest operation for Servier, and it belongs to the top 20 research-based pharmaceutical companies in Canada. Servier Canada is currently marketing two cardiovascular medicines and is expecting further approvals in the upcoming months. The mission of Servier Canada is to provide the Canadian medical community and their patients the best possible therapeutic solutions. More information is available at www.servier.ca

About Servier

Servier is a non-listed international pharmaceutical company headquartered in France. With a strong international presence in 148 countries and a turnover of 3.9 billion euro in 2015, Servier employs more than 21,200 people worldwide. Corporate growth is driven by Servier's constant search for innovation in five areas of excellence: cardiology, oncology, metabolism, neuropsychiatry and rheumatology. Thanks to its governance placed in a non-profit Foundation, the Group reinvests 25% of Servier's products turnover in Research and Development and all its profits in it growth.

Servier is a key player in cardiology, one of its five therapeutic areas. Its portfolio of innovative cardiovascular treatments is being developed with partners worldwide.

More information is available at: www.servier.com

Forward-looking statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements and information about future developments in the sector, and the legal and business conditions of DAIICHI SANKYO Co., Ltd. Such forward-looking statements are uncertain and are subject at all times to the risks of change, particularly to the usual risks faced by a global pharmaceutical company, including the impact of the prices for products and raw materials, medication safety, changes in exchange rates, government regulations, employee relations, taxes, political instability and terrorism as well as the results of independent demands and governmental inquiries that affect the affairs of the company. All forward-looking statements contained in this release hold true as of the date of publication. They do not represent any guarantee of future performance. Actual events and developments could differ materially from the forward-looking statements that are explicitly expressed or implied in these statements. DAIICHI SANKYO Co., Ltd. Assume no responsibility for the updating of such forward-looking statements about future developments of the sector, legal and business conditions and the company. 

¹Canadian Stroke Prevention Intervention Network. Available at: http://www.cspin.ca/patients/fast-facts/
²Tagalakis V, et al. Incidence of and mortality from venous thromboembolism in a real-world population: the Q-VTE Study Cohort. Am J Med. 2013;126: 13–21.

SOURCE Servier Canada Inc.

Servier Corporate External, Communications Department, Sylvie Delassus, Tel: [phone], Email: [email protected]; CANADA Media contact: Nadine Doucet, Tel: [phone] Ext: 4225, Email: [email protected]