Drug giant Pfizer Inc., which has operations in New London and Groton, today extended its partnership with Japanese drugmaker Eisai on the Alzheimer’s treatment Aricept, and said the companies will also team up to sell the nerve pain and epilepsy drug Lyrica.
Pfizer and Eisai will continue to co-market Aricept in the U.S., Japan, and some markets in Europe, and Eisai will gain the Japanese rights to the drug on Dec. 31, 2012. Pfizer will have exclusive rights to Aricept in other countries, and will keep those rights until July 2022.
Lyrica has not yet been approved in Japan, but if it is approved, the companies plan to co-promote it until July 2022. Both companies say the agreement resolved a dispute about their partnership, which began in October 1994.
Separately, Pfizer today announced the election of two Wyeth directors — Frances D. Fergusson and John P. Mascotte — who will serve on the board following their merger.
Fergusson is president emeritus and professor of art at Vassar College, where she became the ninth president in 1986 and retired from that position after twenty years in July 2006.
Fergusson earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Wellesley College, and masters and doctoral degrees in art history at Harvard University. She holds honorary doctorates from the University of Hartford, University of London, and Bard College.
Mascotte is the retired president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, where he served between 1997 and 2001. Prior to joining Blue Cross Blue Shield, Mascotte served as chairman of Johnson & Higgins of Missouri from January 1996, and from 1983-1995 as chairman and CEO of The Continental Corp., which merged with CNA in 1995. (AP)
