Forest Buys Bystolic Rights - Analyst Blog
April 09 2012 - 1:41PM
Zacks
Forest Laboratories, Inc. (FRX) recently
purchased all US patents and other US and Canadian intellectual
property for hypertension treatment, Bystolic, from Janssen
Pharmaceutica NV, a Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
company.
In order to acquire the Bystolic patents, Forest Labs made a
one-time cash payment of $357 million to Janssen, which will be
amortized by Forest Labs over the balance patent life of Bystolic.
Forest Labs had licensed the US pharmaceutical composition of
matter patent covering Bystolic from Mylan (MYL),
which had licensed the patent from Janssen Pharmaceutica NV.
Besides acquiring Bystolic-related patents, Forest Labs
terminated its licensing agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV
and Janssen Pharmaceutical for the commercialization of Bystolic
and Savella (fibromyalgia), respectively, in Canada.
Forest Labs said that its Canadian subsidiary will be
responsible for the registration and commercialization of Bystolic
and Savella.
The Bystolic rights were acquired on March 30. With this move,
Forest Labs will be doing away with the obligation to pay royalties
on Bystolic.
Meanwhile, we note that several generic companies are currently
seeking approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for
their generic versions of Bystolic. Forest Labs and Janssen
Pharmaceutica NV have filed a joint lawsuit against companies like
Amerigen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Glenmark Generics, Inc., Hetero USA
Inc., Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Watson Laboratories, Inc.
Another patent infringement lawsuit has been filed by Forest
Labs and Janssen in the US District Court for the Northern District
of Illinois against Alkem Laboratories Limited and Indchemie Health
Specialties Pvt. Ltd. Bystolic sales came in at $250.9 million, up
31.2% from the year-ago period, in the first nine months of fiscal
2012.
Neutral on Forest Labs
We currently have a Neutral recommendation on Forest Labs, which
carries a Zacks #3 Rank (short-term Hold rating). The company is
facing a major patent cliff with Lexapro, its key revenue
generator, losing patent exclusivity recently. While
Teva (TEVA) launched its generic version of
Lexapro recently, Mylan is marketing an authorized generic version
of the product.
Another key product, Namenda, in Forest Labs’ portfolio could
start facing generic competition in early 2015.
FOREST LABS A (FRX): Free Stock Analysis Report
JOHNSON & JOHNS (JNJ): Free Stock Analysis Report
MYLAN INC (MYL): Free Stock Analysis Report
TEVA PHARM ADR (TEVA): Free Stock Analysis Report
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