Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, citing a need to "simplify" its business, has sold its Asia Pacific operations to Invida Pharmaceutical Holdings Pte. Ltd. for $37.8 million in cash.

Invida is acquiring all of Valeant's licensing rights and commercial operations in the Asia Pacific for products currently marketed in 12 areas, including Singapore, the Philippines, Taiwan, Korea and China. Some product rights in Japan also are included.

The divestment comprises approximately 230 stock-keeping units, including global brands such as Kinerase, Dermatix and Efudix.

Invida is the holding company of Pharmalink, a pharmaceutical and health care commercialization provider, and Inovail, a specialty pharmaceutical company based in Singapore.

The deal is the second major product sell-off by Valeant in less than three months. In December, it sold U.S. and Canadian rights to hepatitis C drug Infergen (interferon alfacon-1) to Three Rivers Pharmaceuticals LLC, of Cranberry Township, Pa., for $70.8 million in cash upon closing, and up to $20.5 million in two noncontingent payments over the following 18 months.

Three Rivers received all U.S. and Canadian rights to Infergen and inventory from Valeant. Infergen, or consensus interferon, is a bio-optimized, selective, highly potent type 1 interferon alpha.

It currently is indicated as monotherapy for the treatment of adult patients suffering from chronic hepatitis C viral infections with compensated liver disease and is dosed three times per week.

The divestitures will enable Aliso, Calif.-based Valeant to focus on core products, including retigabine for patients with drug-resistant or refractory epilepsy. Results from a Phase III trial released last month showed retigabine demonstrated to be statistically significant for primary efficacy endpoints important for regulatory review by the FDA and the European Medicines Evaluation Agency. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 13, 2008.)