* Forest gets exclusive rights to smoker's lung drug in U.S.
* Forest to pay $100 million upfront, more as milestones reached
* Daxas would be first pill to treat COPD
By Quentin Webb
LONDON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Nycomed, the private Swiss drug company, picked Forest Laboratories Inc as a U.S. partner for Daxas, its experimental treatment for "smoker's lung", receiving $100 million upfront in return.
Forest will have exclusive rights to develop, make and commercialise Daxas in the United States, utilising its 2,700-strong sales force.
Forest also agreed to pay further "significant milestones and royalties" for the drug, which Nycomed recently submitted to European and U.S. regulators for approval, Nycomed said in a statement on Monday.
Daxas is the first tablet-based treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) -- the world's fifth-biggest cause of death in 2002, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The drug could compete with GlaxoSmithKline's Advair and Spiriva, marketed by Pfizer and Boehringer Ingelheim, in the multibillion-dollar-a-year worldwide COPD market.
Nycomed, whose biggest owners are private equity firms Nordic Capital and Credit Suisse's DLJ unit, aims to use junk bonds and fresh equity from its owners to fund a planned buyout of Solvay's drugs unit, people familiar with the matter told Reuters recently.
(Editing by Ben Hirschler)