NEW YORK (AP) – Forest Laboratories Inc. said it will pay an Austrian drugmaker $25 million to start a partnership on an experimental infection drug and has an option to buy the whole company.

Forest will fund and help develop Nabriva Therapeutics’ drug candidate BC-3781 over the next year. The companies expect to start late-stage clinical trials of the drug in early 2013.

Forest will also have the exclusive right to buy Nabriva over the next year. The companies did not disclose other terms of the collaboration and said their agreement will be reviewed by antitrust regulators.

BC-3781 is designed to treat severe and drug resistant infections including the “superbug” MRSA, penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumonia, Legionella pneumophila, which causes Legionnaires’ disease, and Chlamydophila pneumoniae, a major cause of pneumonia. It is Nabriva’s most advanced drug candidate.

Nabriva is based in Vienna, and in 2011 it reported positive mid-stage trial results from a study that evaluated BC-3781 as a treatment for acute bacterial and skin structure infections.

Source: The Associated Press