Forest announces termination of faropenem agreement

Forest Laboratories has announced the termination of a collaboration agreement with Replidyne for the development of the orally-administered novel community antibiotic, faropenem medoxomil.

This agreement was originally announced in February 2006 and there will be no payments made by Forest in relation to the ending of this agreement.

Faropenem medoxomil is an ester prodrug derived from the beta-lactam antibioteic farpenem. This form of the drug aims to offer improved oral bioavailability which results in increased systemic concentrations of the compound.

In October 2006, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the companies with a letter of non-approval for four adult indications of the compound. These indications were acute bacterial sinusitis, community-acquired pneumonia, acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis and uncomplicated and skin structure infections.

Howard Solomon, chairman and chief executive officer of Forest, said: “Forest believes the FDA’s non-approval letter clearly raises regulatory uncertainty.”

He added that the firm had analysed all existing data relating to the compound together with the letter from the FDA and has consequently elected to not continue in the development of faropenem medoxomil.

Replidyne and Forest first announced a licensing agreement for the development, commercialisation and distribution of the antibiotic in February 2006.