Forest Laboratories, Inc. today announced that Forest Laboratories Holdings Limited, its wholly owned subsidiary, and Janssen Pharmaceutica NV entered into an agreement under which Forest acquired all U.S. patents and other U.S. and Canadian intellectual property for Bystolic(R) (nebivolol), which is currently approved in the United States for the treatment of hypertension, thereby eliminating all future royalties. The acquisition was completed simultaneously with the execution of the agreement on March 30.
Under the terms of this agreement, Forest made a one-time cash payment of $357 million to Janssen, and Janssen assigned to Forest all U.S.
patents and other U.S. and Canadian know-how covering Bystolic(R), including the nebivolol composition of matter patent in the U.S.
Forest will amortize the one-time cash payment over the remaining patent life of Bystolic.
In addition, contemporaneously with the closing of the acquisition, Forest and Janssen terminated the licenses in Canada for both Bystolic and Savella(R) (milnacipran) with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV and Janssen Pharmaceutical, respectively. Forest has now established its Canadian subsidiary, which will take over the registration and commercialization of both products.
Howard Solomon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Forest Laboratories said, “We are pleased with the success of Bystolic and we look forward to the product’s continued growth. Though it is the only branded beta-blocker in the U.S. market, Bystolic now represents over 4% of this very large class and it continues to grow. Sales in the quarter ending December 31, 2011 grew 33% over the same quarter last year. Forest will enjoy the fruits of its further investment in the commercialization of Bystolic, as well as in available lifecycle strategies.”
