Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. said Monday that it has extended its contract with U.S. drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. for the aripiprazole anti-psychotic and will receive a lump-sum payment of 400 million dollars.

The agreement, which covers joint development and marketing in the U.S., was extended for two years and five months and now runs through April 2015. The two firms originally signed the deal in 1999, and U.S. sales of the anti-psychotic began in 2002.

By maintaining its partnership with Bristol-Myers Squibb, Otsuka Pharmaceutical hopes to further broaden sales of the drug, which generated 274 billion yen in worldwide sales for the Japanese company in the year ended March 2008.

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