Astrazeneca has struck a deal with drug developer Almirall for the rights to the Spanish group's respiratory franchise. Under the agreement, which includes an initial consideration of $875m, the FTSE 100-listed company will gain the rights for the development and commercialisation of Almirall's existing proprietary respiratory business, including rights to revenues from Almirall's existing partnerships, as well as its pipeline of investigational novel therapies.Astra will make further payments of up to $1.22bn based on development, launch, and sales-related milestones. The Anglo-Swedish drugs giant has also agreed to make various sales-related payments. The franchise includes Eklira, which according to Almirall's first half results has grown 50% to €58.0m, equal to 14.4% of the company's total sales. The product has achieved increased market share in all of its key geographies. The respiratory franchise generated sales of €123.5m, up 13.6% compared to the first half of 2013. "The business combination will give Astrazeneca immediate access to on-market revenues, contributing to the company's return to growth," it said. It expects the transaction to be neutral to core earnings per share in 2015 and accretive from 2016, with no impact on 2014. The group said it planned to finance the transaction from existing cash resources and short-term credit facilities.Under the agreement, Almirall Sofotec, an Almirall subsidiary focused on the development of innovative proprietary devices, will also transfer to Astrazeneca.The group's Chief Executive Officer, Pascal Soriot, said: "Our agreement with Almirall brings strategic and long-term value to AstraZeneca's strong respiratory franchise, one of our key growth platforms. We will benefit from immediate and growing product revenues which we anticipate will be rapidly accretive to earnings. "Chronic respiratory disease affects hundreds of millions of people around the world. By combining our innovative portfolios and leveraging AstraZeneca's global scientific and commercial capabilities, we will strengthen our ability to address the entire spectrum of care in asthma and COPD." Shares in Astrazeneca were up 1.1% to 4,370.5p at 08:16 on Wednesday.NR