CV Therapeutics Inc. and Astellas Pharma Inc. said on Friday that the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. approved their new drug regadenoson or Lexiscan.

Both companies plan to sell Lexican as an agent which identify areas of poor blood flow in the heart of patients. This will help detect and characterize coronary artery disease, the most common type of heart disease, the statement announced.

Astellas shares rose during Tokyo's early Friday trade.

Regadenoson was produced to work faster and with less side effects than the current drug used in cardiac stress tests.

In the agreement of both pharmaceutical groups, Tokyo based Astellas Inc. has the exclusive North American rights to Lexiscan, CV Therapeutics manages the development program while Astellas is responsible for all comercial activities for Lexiscan in North America.

CV Therapeutics will receive $12 million from Astellas as a result of the FDA approval and a royalty on product sales of Lexiscan. CV Therapeutics owns the rights for regadenoson outside of North America.

Shares of Astellas closed Thursday at $40.25. Shares of CV Therapeutics were at $8.03.

Medicine