Forest Labs links with moksha8 for Viibryd in Latin America; Watson sells minority stake

US drugmaker Forest Laboratories (NYSE: FRX) has entered into a broad strategic alliance with Brazil-based pharma firm moksha8 that will provide Forest with a commercial footprint in Latin America and give moksha8 access to the antidepressant Viibryd (vilazodone) and potentially other Forest products for the Latin American market.

In addition, Forest will provide up to $125 million in financing to moksha8 in several tranches over a two-year period, conditioned on moksha8 achieving certain business goals. At the conclusion of this two-year period, Forest will have the option to acquire moksha8 in a merger transaction.

David Solomon, senior vice president of corporate development and strategic planning at Forest, said: “Moksha8 is uniquely positioned to commercialize novel products such as Viibryd in Latin America, and Forest will augment the moksha8 pipeline through our broad global partner network and business development reach. This alliance will in time contribute important incremental profits and growth to Forest and is consistent with Forest’s strategy to improve returns on our product investments through fiscally responsible international expansion.”