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HARROW, England, Sept. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Accord Healthcare have entered into an Exclusive Distribution Agreement with Molteni Farmaceutici for the commercialisation of Sixmo®▼ (buprenorphine implant). Sixmo is an opioid agonist therapy treatment, delivered through a first-of-its-kind implant, placed under the skin for six-months. Approved in Europe, it will offer a convenient way of providing treatment to those who need it.
This partnership agreement brings together, as Sixmo's Marketing Authorisation Holder, the expertise and heritage of Molteni Farmaceutici in the speciality opioid addiction market, with the extensive commercial reach of Accord Healthcare which includes an expert sales and marketing team. The deal is strategically advantageous to both parties who share a common purpose to offer this treatment for addiction to people across Europe.
Paul Tredwell, Vice President Speciality Brands, Accord Healthcare, Europe, Middle East, and North Africa said:
"This distribution agreement for Sixmo marks the beginning of our commitment to launch a number of medicines for the treatment of addiction, through our speciality CNS franchise. Our mandate is to increase access to vital medicines and with Sixmo, we have the potential to make a difference to patient lives by offering them additional choice in their treatment options."
There are estimated to be 1.3m high-risk opioid users (mainly heroin) in Europe[i], yet treatment rates are low with only 50% of people with opioid dependence receiving an opioid agonist medicine (either methadone or buprenorphine)[ii].
Giuseppe Seghi Recli, President of Molteni Farmaceutici, said: "Our company's primary goal is to devise treatments able to improve the patient's quality of life. We believe Sixmo represents a real change in the paradigm of treatment of Opioid Use Disorder patients. This new agreement with Accord is a further step in Molteni growth strategy in its core business areas through relevant partnership at European level with the aim to improve patients' access to new therapeutic options in addiction."
About Sixmo®
Sixmo®, indicated for adult patients who are already stable on a dose of 8mg/day or less of buprenorphine, received market authorisation by the European Medicines Agency in June 2019. Sixmo is available as an implant to be inserted under the skin, which continuously releases buprenorphine into the body.
About Accord Healthcare
Headquartered in the United Kingdom (UK), Accord Healthcare Europe is one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical companies in Europe. Accord has one of the largest market footprints of any European generic and biosimilars companies selling generic medicines in over 80 countries around the world.
This global footprint enables us to deliver vital, affordable medicines to national health systems supporting healthcare professionals to transform patient lives worldwide.
Our approach is agile and inventive, always seeking to improve our products and patients' access to them. We're driven to think differently and deliver more for the benefit of patients worldwide. www.accord-healthcare.com
About Molteni Farmaceutici
Founded in 1892 and headquartered in Italy, Molteni Farmaceutici is a privately held speciality pharmaceutical company specialising in the development, manufacture and marketing of drug treatments for addictions and moderate to severe pain.
Molteni, as a leader in the drug addiction sector, operates both directly, in Italy and Poland, and through its network of specialised partners in over 50 countries and is a qualified preferential partner of international and non-governmental organisations such as UNICEF, UNDP, IDA Foundation and Global Fund. Since 2017 it has acquired the ELITE certification from the Italian Stock Exchange.
[i] European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction EMCDDA 2019 [ii] EMCDDA – Tackling Opioid Dependence
