GC Pharma on Monday said that it completed the sales of its American subsidiaries to Spanish firm Grifols three months after they initiated talks.

“The proceeds from the transaction will be used to streamline management and for new business investments,” said Huh Yong-jun, CEO of GC.

At $460 million, the sales of Green Cross BioTherapeutics in Montreal, Canada, and GCAM in the US, amount to the biggest cross border transaction of business units for a Korean pharmaceuticals firm.

GC Pharma is a Korean blood plasma-derived medicinal products firm. In mid-July, the company had announced that it had decided to offload its North American business units to Spain’s Grifols.

GCBT had been responsible for manufacturing and sales of PDMPs in the North America region, while GCAM, had operated GC’s blood plasma donation centers across the US.

GC Pharma said that the decision to sell North American units was an agile decision to cope with changing market situations and to add to the company’s financial solvency.

In the fourth quarter, GC Pharma will apply for the US Food and Drug Administration’s sales authorization of its intravenous immunoglobulin 10 percent. IVIGs are used to boost human immune response, generally in operating theaters.

The company expects to attain the permit as early as end-2021 and begin sales in the US in 2022.

In order to produce IVIG 10 percents for the US market, the GC Pharma will need blood from the US. A GC Pharma official explained that even after the GCAM sales, the company can still source blood from GCAM for the next two years. The IVIG 10 percents will be produced from GC Pharma’s plant in Ochang, North Chungcheong Province and shipped to the US.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)