Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Merck KGaA will return all rights for safinamide to Newron Pharmaceuticals S.p.A., the company said in an e-mailed statement today.

Merck had acquired exclusive worldwide rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize safinamide in Parkinson’s disease and other therapeutic applications.

The agreement termination will become effective in April 2012 and will result in about 40 million euros of additional costs for the Merck Serono division in the fourth quarter. The costs will be excluded from both the division’s and the Merck Group’s fourth-quarter underlying operating result, the company said.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mariajose Vera at mvera1@bloomberg.net