Valeant Pharmaceuticals announces promotion agreement with GSK

Valeant Pharmaceuticals has announced it has signed an agreement with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for the promotion of the at-home medication for patients aged two years and older on stable antiepileptic medications who experience spates of increased seizure activity.

The company explains under the terms of the deal, GSK will exclusively promote Diastat and Diastat AcuDial to physicians in the US in 2009, with an option to extend the arrangement by mutual agreement.

Valeant states it will continue to book sales and will also be responsible for ongoing brand strategy and development of products.

Monetary terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

J Michael Pearson, chairman and chief executive officer of Valeant, states the firm believes the agreement will further strengthen the collaboration in epilepsy treatment between the two groups and will also help build a strong platform ahead of the potential launch of retigabine.

“We believe this agreement will capitalise on the synergies between our two companies, expanding the promotional support for this important product while lowering Valeant’s overall cost structure,” he adds.

In recent days, Valeant announced it will hold a conference call on November 6th to discuss its financial results for the third quarter of 2008.