Shares in GW Pharmaceuticals, maker of the cannabis-derived medicine Sativex, rose more than 15 per cent after the company struck a valuable $34m (£20m) licensing deal with Swiss giant Novartis to distribute the drug in territories outside of Europe, UK, North America and Japan.
Primarily that means the Asia Pacific region, which includes Australia and New Zealand. Novartis will take on responsibility for getting Sativex through various individual regulatory procedures and shoulder the marketing cost of the drug, while GW will concentrate on manufacturing and supply. The deal is worth about $5m upfront to GW, with the balance of the funds dependent on achieving regulatory and commercial milestones, which management says is a better than average deal for a rest-of-the-world commercial licence.
When: 2 Sep 2010
Price: 103p
Tip performance to date: +7 per cent
