Cessation of nine-month deal costs Forest an additional $26.6 million.
Forest Laboratories and Daiichi Sankyo terminated their copromotion agreement for AZOR™ (amlodipine and olmesartan medoxomil), Daiichi Sankyo’s fixed-dose combination of two antihypertensives, the calcium channel blocker amlodipine besylate and the angiotensin receptor blocker olmesartan medoxomil. Beginning July 1, 2008, Daiichi Sankyo will take sole responsibility for the promotion of AZOR.
The copromotion agreement for AZOR, which was was approved by the FDA in September 2007, was inked in October 2007. At that time, Forest made an upfront payment of $20 million to Daiichi Sankyo.
As a result of the agreement termination, Forest will record a charge of $44.1 million, which is composed of a one-time payment to Daiichi Sankyo of $26.6 million related to the termination and $17.5 million related to the unamortized portion of the initial upfront payment.
The AZOR agreement is the second copromotion agreement for the two companies. A previous agreement signed in 2002 by Forest to copromote Benicar® (olmesartan medoxomil) and Benicar HCT® (olmesartan medoxomil-hydrochlorothiazide) is currently still in force.
