By Razak Musah Baba

LONDON--Biopharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca PLC (AZN.LN) said Tuesday it is selling the U.S. rights to its generic high blood pressure drug Toprol-XL to Aralez Pharmaceuticals Trading DAC for an initial payment of $175 million.

As part of the agreement, Aralez will pay the U.K.-based drugmaker to acquire the rights to Toprol-XL tablets in the U.S. and the authorized generic medicine marketed by Par Pharmaceuticals.

Aralez will also pay AstraZeneca up to $48 million in milestone and sales-related payments, as well as mid-teen percentage royalties on sales.

Toprol-XL is a beta-blocker medicine for the control of hypertension, angina and heart failure. It was first approved in the U.S. in 1992.

AstraZeneca said it will continue to manufacture and supply Toprol-XL and the authorized generic medicine to Aralez.

Aralez Pharmaceuticals Trading DAC is a unit of Aralez Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ARLZ), a global specialty pharmaceutical company.

Write to Razak Musah Baba at razak.baba@wsj.com; Twitter: @Raztweet

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 04, 2016 03:03 ET (07:03 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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