Japanese drugmaker Eisai and Teva Pharmaceutical announced that they have mutually agreed to end their May 2003 alliance to co-promote Teva's Azilect (rasagiline tablets) for Parkinson's disease in the U.S. Teva Neuroscience will now have sole responsibility for the marketing of the drug in the US.

The FDA approved once-daily Azilect as a treatment for Parkinson's disease in May this year. The drug will be available in the U.S. by the end of this month.

A global Phase II study in which rasagiline is used as an adjunctive treatment in Alzheimer's patients treated with Eisai's Aricept started in 2004 and still ongoing.