Pfizer earns $1.9B from sale of stake in HIV drug company majority owned by GSK
Pfizer is exiting the business of developing and marketing HIV drugs by exiting a minority stake in ViiV Healthcare. ViiV Healthcare is a company formed 17 years ago by Pfizer in partnership with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
Under a new agreement, Pfizer's ownership stake in ViiV will be replaced by Shionogi, another minority shareholder in the HIV company. Under the terms of the deal announced on Tuesday, ViiV will divest Pfizer of its 11.7% stake in the company, and Pfizer will receive $1.875 billion. At the same time, ViiV will issue new shares to Shionogi at a price of US$2.125 billion, increasing the Japanese company's shareholding in ViiV from 10% to 21.7%.
GSK has been ViiV's majority shareholder since its inception and will maintain a 78.3% stake. The London-based pharmaceutical company will also receive a special dividend of $250 million, payable in pounds. The deal still requires regulatory approvals in certain markets but is expected to close this quarter.
ViiV, launched in 2009, has a portfolio of 10 HIV drugs from GSK and Pfizer, as well as new drug development programs based on research from both companies. At the time, GSK held 85% of ViiV and Pfizer held 15%. In 2012, ViiV acquired global rights to an HIV drug developed in partnership with Shionogi. In return, Shionogi became a 10% shareholder in ViiV and received a seat on the company's board of directors.
The ViiV portfolio currently has 15 approved drugs, and its revenue is recorded by GSK. GlaxoSmithKline reported sales of HIV drugs at £7.1 billion ($9.5 billion) in 2024, up 10.9% from the previous year. ViiV's top product is Dovato, a once-daily drug approved to treat HIV in patients 12 years and older. GSK reports that Dovato's revenue in 2024 will be 2.2 billion pounds (about 2.9 billion U.S. dollars).
Pfizer's financial reports have recognized ViiV's dividend as revenue. In the context of HIV drug sales, these payments are nominal. Pfizer received $272 million in dividends from ViiV in 2024; the previous year's dividend was $265 million.
ViiV's main rival in the HIV drug space is Gilead Sciences. The newest product in Gilead's HIV portfolio is Yeztugo, a twice-yearly injection that received FDA approval last summer for HIV-1 pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). ViiV's FDA-approved PrEP drug, Apretude, is injected every other month, but the company has been testing an ultra-long-acting version of the drug that would allow for dosing intervals of four to six months. This work, along with ViiV's pipeline of four preclinical HIV drugs, will now be conducted by just two partners.
“This agreement simplifies ViiV's shareholder structure and we look forward to continuing our highly successful collaboration with Shionogi to advance ViiV's pipeline and portfolio of long-acting injectable HIV treatment and prevention medicines,” David Redfern, chairman of ViiV Healthcare, said in a prepared statement.
Image provided by Flickr user NIAID via Creative Commons license
