Amgen, the biotech giant based in Thousand Oaks, announced that it would buy out joint venture Kirin-Amgen, which was created to develop white blood cell booster Neupogen among other projects, for $780 million.

The joint venture holds intellectual property rights for Neupogen, Neulasta, Aranesp, Nplate and brodalumab. In addition to the cash deal, Amgen will pay Kirin additional royalties valued at around $30 million, and the joint venture will become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Thousand Oaks company.

Kirin-Amgen had previously licensed marketing rights in Asia to Kirin’s pharmaceutical subsidiary Kyowa Hakka Kirin, or KHK. Neulasta was the company’s second-best selling product in 2016, bringing in $4.65 billion in sales. In total, the products developed by the joint venture contributed more than $8 billion in revenue for Amgen.

“Our historic partnership with Kirin played a pivotal role in the growth of Amgen from a small, venture-backed startup to one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies,” Chairman and CEO Robert Bradway said in a news release, thanking Kirin for three decades of collaboration. “We look forward to continuing what has been Amgen’s longest-running collaboration through our ongoing relationship with KHK.”

Funds for the purchase will come from the joint venture’s existing cash holdings, and Amgen will retain the product rights and remaining cash held by Kirin-Amgen.

License agreements between Kirin- Amgen and KHK will remain in place, and the transaction is expected to close in the current quarter or first quarter of 2018, upon certain conditions and regulatory approvals.

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC is acting as exclusive financial adviser to Amgen in connection with the transaction.

• Contact Marissa Nall at mnall@pacbiztimes.com.