FORT WORTH, Texas—Eyevance Pharmaceuticals, a Fort Worth-based pharmaceutical company, has acquired the Freshkote family of lubricant eye drops from Focus Laboratories. Under the terms of the agreement, Eyevance acquired Freshkote and all its formulations, including the preservative-free, multi-dose bottle and single-unit vials, to market and commercialize worldwide. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. “The acquisition of the Freshkote franchise represents an important business milestone for Eyevance, which is actively building a portfolio of impactful and innovative eyecare products, focused on the anterior segment of the eye,” said Jerry St. Peter, CEO and director, Eyevance.

Patrick Witham, director, Focus Laboratories, commented, “Following our new reformulation and improvement of Freshkote, we are excited to hand off this asset to an emerging ophthalmic-focused company. This divestiture provides the opportunity for Focus to further concentrate its efforts on the discovery and development of new innovative therapies in ocular medicine.”

Eyevance’s acquisition of the Freshkote family of products follows the announcement of an exclusive licensing agreement with Nicox Ophthalmics (www.nicox.com) for prescription-only Zerviate (cetirizine ophthalmic solution) 0.24 percent for the treatment of ocular itching associated with allergic conjunctivitis.