Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/de6682/forest_laboratorie) has announced the addition of the "Forest Laboratories: Pipeline - Products - Performance - Potential" report to their offering.
During fiscal 2008, Forest has attempted to surmount the loss of Celexa, a major product that was selling around US$1 billion before the entry of generics. This revenue reduction has been offset somewhat by sales growth for both Lexapro and Namenda, and an increase in Benicar co-promotion income. Consequently, in fiscal 2007 and 2008, Forest achieved earnings growth and record sales. However, the loss of Celexa leaves Forest substantially dependent on the sales of its two principal products, Lexapro and Namenda, which is somewhat risky. Furthermore, Forest's licence agreement with Lundbeck for these products is set to expire in 2010. Given that Lexapro may lose patent protection shortly after this date, Espicom expects the licence term to be extended to the end of our forecast period, when generic competition is expected to impact sales.
The patent extension for Namenda and the launch of Bystolic will relieve some of this pressure on Forest, however, the company will need to achieve approval for a number of its promising R&D candidates to secure long-term growth. Forest's three candidate compounds (milnacipran, aclidinium and neramexone) have a combined forecasted sales total of US$1,085.4 million for fiscal 2013, which is around half the sales Lexapro is currently generating.
The acquisition of Cerexa provides Forest with major opportunities in an entirely new therapeutic area, the hospital injectable anti-infective market, which urgently needs innovative drugs because of the persistent and inevitable development of increased resistance to existing antibiotics. Cerexa's most advanced product, ceftaroline, is now in Phase III studies.