DURECT Corporation announced that it has signed a development and license deal with an Alpharma, Inc. affiliate.

Under the terms of the agreement, Alpharma is granted the exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize DURECT’s transdermal bupivacaine patch, ELADUR(TM), which being investigated for the treatment of pain associated with post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN).

Alpharma, which will control and fund the development program, will pay DURECT an upfront license fee of $20 million, with possible additional payments of up to $93 million upon the achievement of predefined development and regulatory milestones as well as possible additional payments of up to $150 million in sales based milestones. If ELADUR(TM) is commercialized, DURECT would also receive a royalty on product sales. The transaction is expected to be closed in the fourth quarter of 2008.

ELADUR(TM) is an investigational transdermal drug patch intended to deliver bupivacaine for up to 3 days from a single application. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted to DURECT orphan drug designation for bupivacaine for relief of persistent pain associated with PHN. According to this, if ELADUR(TM) is the first bupivacaine product approved for PHN, it would receive 7 years of market exclusivity following the approval of the product by the FDA.

Source: DURECT Corporation