[路透社 2016-06-02]

LONDON AstraZeneca has sold the European and Latin American rights to its new gout drug Zurampic to private German drugmaker Gruenenthal for up to $230 million, following a similar disposal of U.S. rights to the medicine.

The British group said on Thursday up it would receive up to $230 million in sales and other related milestones over the lifetime of the contract, with Gruenenthal also paying royalties on sales.

In April, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals bought U.S. marketing rights to the newly approved drug for up to $265 million.

AstraZeneca has a strategy of selling certain rights to non-core medicines as it invests in new drugs. But the disposal of Zurampic has led some analysts to question the success of its past acquisitions, since AstraZeneca only bought the drug's original developer Ardea Biosciences in 2012 for $1.26 billion.