Hikma Pharmaceuticals is in talks with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to take over GSK’s pharmaceutical, consumer commercialisation and manufacturing business in Egypt and its drugs business in Tunisia. The deal is subject to further due diligence and approval from regulators.

Hikma announced the talks in a release yesterday. Hikma’s revenues in the MENA region were around $700m in 2020. Hikma supplies generic drugs including anaesthetics, pain medications, sedatives, neuromuscular blocking agents and anti-infectives.

In 2018, Hikma announced it had signed an agreement with Vectura for the global development and commercialisation of generic versions of GSK’s Ellipta asthma treatment portfolio. In December 2020, the two companies announced that Hikma Pharmaceuticals has launched its generic version of GlaxoSmithKline’s Advair Diskus asthma and COPD product in the US, following approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).