Forest Laboratories, an international pharmaceutical company, and moksha8, a pharmaceutical company that commercializes CNS medicines in Latin America, have entered into a broad strategic alliance that will provide Forest with a commercial footprint in Latin America and give moksha8 access to Viibryd and potentially other Forest products for the Latin American market.

The alliance includes an exclusive license from Forest to moksha8 to commercialize Viibryd, a novel antidepressant for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). In addition, Forest will provide up to $125 million in financing to moksha8 in several tranches over a two-year period, conditioned upon 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. The moksha8 shareholders will also have a put option at such time, provided that moksha8 has achieved certain business objectives.

"We are pleased to enter into this transaction with moksha8, which provides Forest access in a risk controlled manner to a high quality commercial operation in Latin America, one of the largest and fastest growing pharmaceutical markets in the world,” said David Solomon, senior vice president, corporate development and strategic planning, Forest Laboratories. “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."

In connection with the alliance, moksha8 has expanded its license arrangement with Watson Pharmaceuticals to extend moksha8's rights to commercialize a portfolio of Watson CNS branded generic products in Brazil and Mexico and has bought out Watson's minority equity position in moksha8. Other financial terms were not disclosed.

“We are also pleased with the agreement between moksha8 and Watson, as Watson's high quality branded generic products are complementary to Viibryd and the other novel brands Forest expects to provide to moksha8," said Soloman.

Today, the Latin America pharmaceutical market is $67 billion with a CAGR of over 14% over the last 5 years. Brazil and Mexico account for two thirds of the Latin America market value. The CNS market in Latin America is estimated to be approximately $6 billion.