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news.Forest Laboratories Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Forest Laboratories, has entered into an asset purchase agreement to acquire worldwide rights of class III antiarrhythmic agent azimilide from Blue Ash Therapeutics.
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Through the asset purchase agreement, Forest has been assigned a license agreement between Warner Chilcott and Blue Ash, providing for worldwide rights to azimilide, and will take care of all future development and commercialization activities and associated costs.
Blue Ash will receive an undisclosed upfront payment and future milestone payments from Forest 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.
Forest president and CEO Howard Solomon said 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).
"We will conduct the final registration trial required for approval in the US under a previously established FDA Special Protocol Assessment (SPA)," Solomon said.
"We will also investigate the potential to obtain approval for azimilide in markets outside the US to help expand our ex-US commercial presence in specialty markets."
Azimilide was originally developed by Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals (P&G).
In 2009 P&G sold its pharmaceutical business to Warner Chilcott including its rights to azimilide.
Blue Ash subsequently obtained an exclusive worldwide license for azimilide from Warner Chilcott.