Forest acquires all rights held by Gruenenthal for colistin

The Gruenenthal Group and Forest Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: FRX), today announced that Forest Healthcare B.V., a wholly owned subsidiary of Forest Laboratories, Inc. and Gruenenthal GmbH, have entered into an agreement whereby Forest has acquired all rights currently held by Gruenenthal for colistin and all rights previously licensed by Forest to Gruenenthal for Colobreathe. Colistin is an antibiotic used to treat the principal bacterial infections in cystic fibrosis patients, and Colobreathe is a novel dry powder inhaler containing colistin developed by Forest and currently being reviewed by the European Medicines Agency. Forest holds market authorizations for and markets colistin in the UK and Ireland, while Gruenenthal holds market authorizations for and markets colistin in several other European markets. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. With this transaction, Forest will expand its European cystic fibrosis franchise and become a major distributor of colistin in Europe. Gruenenthal divested the colistin franchise as part of its strategy to focus its business on its core pain franchise.

Harald F. Stock, CEO of the Gruenenthal Group said, "The divestiture is the next logical step in implementing our strategy to focus on development and marketing of innovative pain medication. To achieve this objective, we must part from businesses such as our CF franchise that are not core business in order to enable us to re-invest into our strategic focus areas. With Forest we have found an attractive buyer for the CF business. Forest is expanding its EU market by acquiring the additional CF products from Gruenenthal. We are convinced that Forest will open new and promising perspectives for CF patients."

Howard Solomon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Forest, said, "We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Gruenenthal on the heels of the recently announced collaboration between our two companies in the area of pain. Acquiring colistin from Gruenenthal is a strategic fit for Forest because it is a first step to expand our commercial capabilities in Europe in addition to our existing presence in the UK and Ireland. This acquisition also strengthens our presence in the cystic fibrosis market in Europe which is further enhanced by regaining all rights to Colobreathe, a novel dry powder formulation of colistin we have developed and previously licensed to Gruenenthal, and which after approval will be available to cystic fibrosis patients across Europe."