Pfizer, Eisai recast marketing partnership

Call it a win-win deal. Pfizer and Eisai have restructured their Aricept partnership and entered a new co-promotion deal on Lyrica. The deals ward off a court battle over the Alzheimer's treatment Aricept. As you know, Pfizer's impending merger with Wyeth prompted Eisai's chief executive to threaten a legal tussle over the terms of their 1994 partnership.

Here's the skinny: Pfizer and Eisai will continue to co-market Aricept in the U.S., Japan, and some European markets, but Eisai will get the Japanese rights in 2012. Pfizer will have exclusive Aricept rights in other markets till 2022. On Lyrica, the two companies are pledging to co-promote the pain and epilepsy drug in Japan till 2022--provide it, in fact, gains approval there as requested.

Eisai said it expects the arrangements to boost revenues and profits beginning in the fiscal year ended March 2011, Reuters reports. Pfizer chief Jeff Kindler said in a statement that the company "look[s] forward to forging a new alliance with Eisai ... with our co-promotion of Lyrica in Japan." We'll have to wait and see if Japanese regulators cooperate and approve the drug.

- get the release from Pfizer
- see the Eisai statement
- read the AP story
- find the news at Reuters
- check out the PharmaTimes piece

ALSO: A fired worker organized a small protest in front of the Pfizer Korea building in downtown Seoul, the Korea Times says. Report