Abbott, AstraZeneca Expand Relationship to Include Co-Promotion of CRESTOR

August 15, 2008 - Abbott and AstraZeneca said this week they entered into an agreement for Abbott to promote AstraZeneca’s CRESTOR (rosuvastatin calcium), a medication used along with diet to reduce high cholesterol.

Under the terms of the agreement, Abbott will obtain the non-exclusive right to promote CRESTOR alongside AstraZeneca in the U.S., excluding Puerto Rico. Specific financial terms were not disclosed.

CRESTOR is a once-daily prescription statin medication indicated for use as an adjunct to diet in the treatment of various lipid disorders including primary hyperlipidemia, mixed dyslipidemia and isolated hypertriglyceridemia, and to slow the progression of atherosclerosis. CRESTOR is available in a 5, 10, 20, and 40 mg dose.

This agreement is the second collaboration between AstraZeneca and Abbott. In 2006, the companies announced an agreement to develop a fixed-dose combination of the active ingredients in Abbott's investigational TriLipix (fenofibric acid) and AstraZeneca’s CRESTOR, with plans to submit a New Drug Application (NDA) to the FDA in 2009. An NDA for TriLipix for use as monotherapy and in combination with statins has been submitted to the FDA and is currently under review.

For more information: www.crestor.com, www.abbott.com