Nycomed has bagged certain rights to market Norgine's bowel-cleansing treatment Moviprep.

The deal covers Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan). No financial details were disclosed.

Moviprep can be used for any clinical procedure requiring a clean bowel, such as colonoscopy. Jostein Davidson, president of Nycomed Russia-CIS, noted that it has "proven to be the preferred choice for bowel preparation" in the European Union and the company will now work on getting approval in the aforementioned region.

Norgine's chief executive Peter Stein said: the deal is an important agreement for his company "as it will mark our entry into this fast developing market". Moviprep is sold by Norgine and a number of other partners including Salix Pharmaceuticals (USA), Medical Futures (Canada) and PharmaSwiss (central and eastern Europe). It is under development with Ajinomoto in Japan.