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Forest purchases rights to azimilide
NEW YORK — Drug maker Forest Labs has acquired worldwide rights to a drug developed by Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals for treating arrhythmia.
Forest said Tuesday that it had purchased the rights to azimilide from Blue Ash Therapeutics and had been assigned a license agreement between Blue Ash and Warner Chilcott. Forest will assume responsibility for all future development and commercialization, including costs. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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Keryx, Torii commence phase-3 trial for Zerenex in Japan
NEW YORK — A U.S. drug maker and its Japanese partner have started a late-stage clinical trial of a drug for treating elevated phosphate levels in the body, the two announced Monday.
Keryx Biopharmaceuticals and Torii Pharmaceutical, the pharmaceuticals subsidiary of Japan Tobacco, started a phase-3 trial of Zerenex (ferric citrate) in Japan for patients with hyperphosphatemia. The drug also is in phase-3 trials in the United States as a treatment for hyperphosphatemia in patients with end-stage kidney disease on dialysis.