Dallas, Texas 02/04/2014 (FINANCIALSTRENDS) – The $224 million market capped drug and medical devices firm DURECT Corporation (NASDAQ:DRRX) entered into a licensing and commercialization agreement with larger capped Impax Laboratories Inc (NASDAQ:IPXL) for it’s under development product “transdermal bupivacaine patch”. As per the terms of the $63 million deal, DURECT Corporation (NASDAQ:DRRX) will get paid $2 million up front and reminder $61 million in the form of staggered mile stone achievement payouts in return of which Impax Laboratories Inc (NASDAQ:IPXL) will acquire the worldwide rights of the yet to be FDA approved product.
Going forward, Impax Laboratories Inc (NASDAQ:IPXL) will fund and lead the development and commercialization efforts of the “transdermal bupivacaine patch” patented as ELADUR, which is designed to treat pain which originates as a “post-herpetic neuralgia” symptom. In the event of ELADUR getting FDA approval and gets released as a commercial treatment mode, DURECT Corporation (NASDAQ:DRRX) will be eligible for receiving royalty on the total sales.
DURECT Corporation (NASDAQ:DRRX) over the past year and a half had been developing the ELADUR treatment as a skin based drug patch, which was designed to administer bupivacaine to the user, for more than three days from just one application. As part of its development efforts, the drug firm had conducted and announced positive results from clinical testing of the drug in phase 2 trials in which close to 60 patients had been enrolled.
Commenting about the synergies which will come into play by this tie up with Impax Laboratories Inc (NASDAQ:IPXL), DURECT Corporation (NASDAQ:DRRX) President and Chief Executive Officer Larry Hsu Ph.D. has been quoted to have said that, “We’re pleased to be moving ELADUR back into development through this collaboration with Impax. Existing patches used to treat PHN pain are limited by their 12 hour duration. Episodes of break-through pain are frequently reported to occur during rest periods for existing patches. We share a vision with Impax to develop a patch that has the potential to reduce these episodes of break-through pain.”