* Takeda sells dry eye drug to Novartis for up to $5.3 bln
* Takeda looking to sell $10 bln worth of non-core assets
* Xiidra deal due to close later this year(Adds Takeda's divestment plan, share move)
By Takashi Umekawa
TOKYO, May 9 (Reuters) - Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltdagreed to sell its dry eye drug to Swiss drugmakerNovartis AG for $3.4 billion and potential milestonepayments of up to $1.9 billion, in the first divestment sinceits takeover of Britain's Shire.
Japan's biggest drugmaker aims to dispose of $10 billionworth of assets to cut debt taken on for the huge Shireacquisition sealed in January, which catapulted it into theworld's top 10 drugmakers by sales but also made it one of themost indebted.
The sale of Shire's Xiidra dry eye treatment is likely toclose in the second half of 2019, Takeda and Novartis said in astatement.
Xiidra, approved to treat signs and symptoms of dry eye inthe United States, Canada and Australia, would bolster Novartis'front-of-the-eye portfolio, the Swiss drugmaker said.
Dry eye occurs when tears fail to provide adequatelubrication, and if left untreated, can become extremelypainful, leading to permanent damage to the cornea and vision.It affects an estimated 34 million people in the United States,Novartis' statement showed.
Novartis said it would take on about 400 employeesassociated with Xiidra, which earned about $400 million ofrevenue in 2018.
Takeda also said it is selling TachoSil, a surgical patchfor bleeding control, to Ethicon for about $400 million.
Takeda's shares rose as much as 3.3 percent in early tradingon Thursday.(Reporting by Takashi Umekawa in Tokyo, Tamara Mathias andArundhati Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler andSonali Paul)
