Forest Labs has another stab at diabetes drug licensing in deal worth potential $1 billion to TransTech Pharma for glucokinase activators

9 June 2010

US drugmaker Forest Laboratories has entered into a license agreement for the development and commercialization of small-molecule compounds discovered and developed by fellow USA-based TransTech Pharma, in a deal that could earn the latter over $1 billion. The compounds involved are functionally liver-selective glucokinase activators (GKAs), which represent a novel class of glucose-lowering agents for the treatment of diabetes.

The news comes less than two months since Forest dropped a $340 million deal signed in 2008 with Phenomix to develop an experimental diabetes drug, dutogliptin, despite the product meeting its primary goal of lowering HbA1c levels in Phase III. One of Forest's current lead products, Lexapro (escitalopram), is set to lose patent protection in 2012, meaning the company is looking for new products to fill the revenue gap that will be created

$50 million up front

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