Innovata clinches marketing deal with US giant

Drugs group Innovata today agreed a deal to allow US rival Baxter International to market its treatment for internal scarring suffered during surgery.

Innovata has handed control of its Adept treatment to Baxter in markets around the world including Japan, enabling it to focus more directly on the United States.

Adept was launched in 2000 and was previously licensed to UK firm Shire Pharmaceuticals in Europe. It is used to reduce adhesions or internal scarring suffered during abdominal, obstetric and gynaecologic surgery.

The drug is currently being reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for marketing approval across the Atlantic.

Innovata – created by the merger of ML Laboratories and Quadrant Technologies last year – said the outcome of the review was expected in the second half of 2006. The Nottingham-based company did not disclose the financial terms of the deal with Baxter today.