Forest to buy Cerexa for $480 million in cash

New York, USA-based pharmaceuticals firm Forest Laboratories says that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately-owned biopharmaceutical group Cerexa. Forest added that it will buy California-headquartered Cerexa for an all-cash transaction valuing the firm at $480.0 million.

On completion of the deal, Forest will obtain worldwide development and marketing rights, outside Japan, to two injectable antibiotics and an option to obtain a third that is in early-stage development. The most advanced of the three compounds, ceftaroline acetate, which is entering Phase III assessment, is a broad-spectrum, cephalosporin-based agent that demonstrated antibacterial activity against most resistant strains of Gram positive bacteria, including methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Phase II trials in patients suffering complicated skin and skin structure infections (cSSSI; Marketletter October 9, 2006).

Forest added that ceftaroline, which has also shown efficacy in the treatment of penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae, is scheduled to enter Phase trials III in both cSSSI and community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in the first half of 2007, having received fast-track review designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (Marketletter April 17, 2006). The firm went on to say that, assuming the Phase III studies are successful, it plans to launch the drug in the USA for use against cSSSI and CAP in 2010 or 2011.