BOLAR AND MYLAN TEAM TO PURCHASE SOMERSET LABS

BOLAR AND MYLAN TEAM TO PURCHASE SOMERSET LABS objective is to provide the generic manufacturers with a source of proprietary pharmaceutical compounds and tie-in to a drug discovery and development capability. Terms of the cash deal, announced in-principle on Nov. 7, were not disclosed. Denville, New Jersey-based Somerset has at least one drug, Eldepryl (selegiline), pending FDA review. Granted a Treatment IND in June, the selective monamine oxidase B-type inhibitor is a potential adjuvant to levodopa in treating Parkinson's Disease. Eldepryl is one of three Somerset compounds originally developed by the Ungarian firm Chinoin. Ipriflavone, a non-hormonal therapy for osteoporosis, is currently in clinicals as is depogen, a hemorheologic agent for treatment of vascular disease. For Bolar, the agreement is the latest in a series of unusual joint ventures that have pushed the company into new product areas. Under an earlier agreement with Health-Chem's Hercon Labs, Bolar markets a transdermal nitroglycerin patch and is developing six other products with Hercon's proprietary transdermal delivery technology. In 1985, Bolar teamed with Agvar Chemical and former Elkins-Sinn exec Marvin Samson in establishing the generic injectables business Marsam Pharmaceuticals. Bolar's 1987 agreement with KV Pharmaceuticals covers the marketing of KV-developed sustained-release products. "Somerset also has the entree to future drugs being developed by a major foreign pharmaceutical company," a joint Bolar/Mylan press release states. The pharmaceutical division of S. C. Johnson before being spun off in 1985, Somerset also claims a strong working relationship with Gideon Richter, Semmelweis Medical University and the Hungarian Institute of Pharmaceutical Research.