In June, Eagle Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Woodcliff Lake announced it completed its $103.9 million acquisition of U.K.-based Acacia Pharma Group Plc., covered extensively by NJBIZ.  

On July 18, Eagle announced it retained about 20 of Acacia’s approximately 70 employees, who mostly are now on the company’s commercial team. One of those employees is Debra Hussain, who was appointed senior vice president, head of commercial. 

Hussain – who joined Acacia in 2021 as chief commercial officer, overseeing its two commercial products, Barhemsys and Byfavo – has nearly 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience leading commercial launches in the hospital and critical care space. 

Before joining Acacia, she spent 22 years at Eli Lilly and Co. Her background includes hospital-based sales and marketing across cardiovascular, urology, diabetes, neuroscience, osteoporosis and critical care/anesthesia specialties. 

In a statement, Eagle President and CEO Scott Tarriff said the team was “immensely impressed with Debra’s vision, experience and leadership skills.” 

“Eagle is now at its peak commercial strength with approximately 50 individuals. We are very confident in Debra’s ability to lead the relaunches of BARHEMSYS and BYFAVO and to prepare for the potential upcoming launch of landiolol, if approved, and we welcome her to the Eagle team,” he continued. 

As NJBIZ previously reported, the acquisition added Acacia’s two U.S. Food & Drug Administration-approved products to its portfolio. Barhemsys is used for the treatment of postoperative nausea and vomiting, and Byfavo, for the induction and maintenance of procedural sedation in adults undergoing procedures lasting 30 minutes or less. 

In the July 18 update, Tarriff also said Eagle was “pleased” with the acquisition and the products. 

“As we commenced their integration, we continued to be impressed with Acacia Pharma’s previous plans and positioning of the products. It is our belief that the two products were underinvested, both from a cost and manpower perspective. Additionally, the products were launched into a very difficult COVID environment, in which access to decision makers and prescribers was limited.” 

Eagle estimates the peak annual U.S. sales of the two products combined could potentially total $275 million.