Astellas terminates heart failure drug agreement

Astellas Pharma has this week announced the termination of its licence agreement with Daiichi Asubio Pharma regarding the rights in the European Union and North American for the compound carperitide.

Carperitide is a compound that aims to treat patients suffering with acute heart failure.

A predecessor of the US subsidiary of Astellas, Fujisawa Healthcare, originally signed a license agreement with Daiichi Suntory Pharma, a subsidiary of Daiichi Asubio Pharma, in May 2003.

“Astellas’ affiliate in the US had conducted some clinical trials using carperitide in the United States but after reassessing competitive circumstances and market potential, decided to discontinue carpetitde development,” Astellas reported.

The company added that, following this decision, both Astellas and Daichi Asubio Pharma have agreed that the licence agreement between the companies will be terminated.

Despite the termination of this agreement, Astellas maintains that the firm recognises the importance of the cardiovascular sector, with the company having a number of drugs in its research and development pipeline for such conditions.

In April 2006, Astellas reported that the European Commission had approved the use of Prograf (tacrolimus), an immunosuppressive calcineurin inhibitor, for prophylaxis use of transplant rejection for patients receiving heart transplants.