Forest acquires worldwide rights to novel antiarrhythmic agent azimilide

Forest Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: FRX) today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Forest Laboratories Holdings Limited and Blue Ash Therapeutics, LLC have entered into an asset purchase agreement, pursuant to which Forest has acquired worldwide rights to azimilide, a novel antiarrhythmic agent originally developed by Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals.

Through the asset purchase agreement, Forest has been assigned a license agreement between Warner Chilcott Company, LLC and Blue Ash, providing for worldwide rights to azimilide, and will be responsible for all future development and commercialization activities and associated costs. Forest will provide to Blue Ash an undisclosed upfront payment and future milestone payments for the successful commercialization of azimilide. Forest will also make royalty payments to Warner Chilcott on net sales of azimilide under the assigned license agreement.

Howard Solomon, Chief Executive Officer, and President of Forest, said, "We are pleased to have acquired the worldwide rights to azimilide. Azimilide is a well studied drug which has been reviewed in the past by the FDA as an antiarrhythmic treatment for patients with a history of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias and who have an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), a group for which there are currently no approved antiarrhythmics. We will conduct the final registration trial required for approval in the United States under a previously established FDA Special Protocol Assessment (SPA). Azimilide could be the first agent to be approved specifically for this patient population in the United States and would be prescribed, if approved, by many physicians who also prescribe our beta blocker Bystolic for the treatment of hypertension. We will also investigate the potential to obtain approval for azimilide in markets outside the United States to help expand our ex-US commercial presence in specialty markets."

SOURCE Forest Laboratories