Salix Pharmaceuticals, based in Raleigh, N.C., and Lainate, Italy-based Cosmo Pharmaceuticals have agreed to terminate their previously-announced merger agreement pursuant to which Salix would have combined with, and become a wholly-owned subsidiary of, Cosmo Technologies, a subsidiary of Cosmo Pharmaceuticals. Effective immediately, Salix will make a $25 million payment to Cosmo.

Carolyn Logan, president and CEO of Salix, said, “When we announced our agreement to merge with Cosmo Technologies in July we believed the combination would generate significant value for our stockholders through the addition of key products to our development pipeline and a more efficient corporate structure that would enhance our profitability. Since then, however, the changed political environment has created more uncertainty regarding the potential benefits we expected to achieve. As a result, Salix and Cosmo have mutually agreed to terminate the proposed transaction.”

Alessandro Della Cha, CEO of Cosmo, said, “The deal with Salix showed the potential of three products of ours for the U.S. The development path of the pipeline continued in the meantime, so this termination has no effect on value creation. Our focus now is on obtaining approval of SIC-8000 and filing Rifamycin SV and Methylene Blue NDA in the next months.”