Peri-ocular ring sweetens Allergan acquisition

The Ireland-based pharmaceutical company signed an agreent last week to acquire ForSight VISION5 for an upfront payment of US$95 million (AU$123.4 m).As part of the agreent, Allergan will also be required to pay a ‘launch milestone payment’ related to ForSight’s lead development program, a peri-ocular ring designed for extended drug delivery and reducing elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) in glaucoma patients.Mr Brent Saunders, chief executive officer and president of Allergan, said the acquisition donstrated the company’s commitment to “advancing products that can profoundly change the way patients receive treatment – through innovation that helps address non-compliance, increases adherence and improves tolerability”.{{image3-a:r-w:300}}According to Allergan, the most common treatment for lowering elevated IOP in open-angle glaucoma is eye-drop therapies, but nearly half of patients stop refilling their glaucoma eye-drop prescriptions after six months, often due to difficulty using th.ForSight’s ring technology was said to be a “preservative-free, non-invasive peri-ocular product” that sits on the surface of the eye and releases medication (bimatoprost) over multiple months to lower elevated IOP in glaucoma and ocular hypertensive patients.“If approved, this technology could provide an important advance to address the significant challenges of patient compliance and adherence in glaucoma, a disease that is expected to impact more than 80 million people worldwide by 2020 and be a leading cause of blindness globally,” Mr David Nicholson, chief research and development officer for Allergan, stated.The acquisition is subject to closing conditions and is expected to be completed by October this year.