French-American School submits plan for White Plains

The French-American School of New York has submitted to White Plains city officials its plan to create a 40-acre campus and consolidate its Westchester operations on the former Ridgeway Country Club. The school last year paid $11 million for the 129-acre golf course property.

With about 840 bilingually educated students, FASNY currently leases space at three campuses in Larchmont, Mamaroneck and Scarsdale. It plans to consolidate its four school divisions in White Plains.

Responding to community concerns and opposition, school officials propose to set aside 60 acres suited for development as permanent, publicly accessible open space and expect to preserve more acreage as the city”™s project review progresses.

Valued at $8 million, the new Gedney Preserve will include public trails for walking, jogging and bicycling and will be the largest open space in White Plains, a school spokesman said.

The Gedney Association, which represents about 400 households in the Gedney Farms neighborhood, has raised residents”™ concerns about the school relocation project, chiefly over traffic it will bring to the neighborhood.

The White Plains Common Council in April imposed a six-month moratorium on approving large open-space development while it studies potential zoning changes. The moratorium, however, will not hold up the council”™s environmental review of the FASNY project, which is expected to take at least one year.

“FASNY will be a valuable economic and cultural asset for White Plains,” said Mischa Zabotin, FASNY board chairman. “We genuinely believe our proposal is the best viable use for the property. We will create what we believe is a carefully planned, environmentally sensitive amenity for the city, one that seeks to protect and preserve the community character of the neighborhood while bringing true economic and cultural value and diversity.”

FASNY officials said most of the school”™s use of the property will be limited to 40 acres at the south end of the already disturbed portion of the property. They plan to restrict vehicular access to a new two-lane, tree-lined entry drive and bar school traffic into the Gedney Farms neighborhood north of the property.

Acorda”™s MS drug clears entry hurdle in Europe

Hawthorne-based Acorda Therapeutics Inc. stands to receive a $25-million payment from its international licensing partner after its drug therapy for multiple sclerosis patients recently was recommended for conditional marketing authorization in the European Union.

The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicine Agency made the recommendation for Fampyra, an oral drug that improves the walking ability of adult MS patients. The drug has been sold in the U.S. since March 2010 under the trade name Ampyra.

Outside the U.S., Fampyra is being developed and marketed by Biogen Idec. Approval by the European Medicine Agency, which Massachusetts-based Biogen expects by late July, will trigger the milestone payment to Acorda. Fampyra also recently was approved for use in Australia.

Acorda may receive additional payments of up to $375 million based on the successful achievement of future regulatory and sales milestones. Under its existing agreements with Elan Pharma International Ltd., a subsidiary of Elan Corp. plc, a neuroscience-based biotech firm with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, Acorda will pay Elan 7 percent of the milestone payments received from Biogen. Acorda will also receive a double-digit royalty from Biogen based on net sales of Fampyra in all foreign markets.

In the U.S. last year, approximately 7,000 physicians prescribed Ampyra to about 40,000 patients, or 10 percent of the nation”™s population afflicted with MS, in its first 10 months on the market, according to Acorda officials. The Hawthorne company reported $133.1 million in net revenue in 2010 from Ampyra sales and $46.8 million in net revenue from the drug, its second commercialized product, in the first quarter this year.