Forest and Gruenenthal Announce Forest's Acquisition of Gruenenthal's Cystic Fibrosis Franchise

The Gruenenthal Group and Forest Laboratories, Inc. FRX, today announced that Forest Healthcare B.V., a wholly owned subsidiary of Forest Laboratories, Inc. and Gruenenthal GmbH, have entered into an agreement whereby Forest has acquired all rights currently held by Gruenenthal for colistin and all rights previously licensed by Forest to Gruenenthal for Colobreathe. Colistin is an antibiotic used to treat the principal bacterial infections in cystic fibrosis patients, and Colobreathe is a novel dry powder inhaler containing colistin developed by Forest and currently being reviewed by the European Medicines Agency. Forest holds market authorizations for and markets colistin in the UK and Ireland, while Gruenenthal holds market authorizations for and markets colistin in several other European markets. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. With this transaction, Forest will expand its European cystic fibrosis franchise and become a major distributor of colistin in Europe. Gruenenthal divested the colistin franchise as part of its strategy to focus its business on its core pain franchise.