Impax and DURECT in $63 million deal for Eladur pain patch

US specialty drugmaker Impax Laboratories (Nasdaq: IPXL) has entered into an agreement with fellow USA-based DURECT (Nasdaq: DRRX) granting Impax the exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize Eladur, DURECT’s investigational transdermal bupivacaine patch for the treatment of pain associated with post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN).

Under the terms of the deal, Impax will pay DURECT an upfront fee of $2 million, with possible additional payments of up to $61 million on the achievement of predefined development and commercialization milestones. If Eladur is commercialized, DURECT would also receive a tiered royalty on product sales. Impax will control and fund the development program.

“We’re pleased to be moving Eladur back into development through this collaboration with Impax,” stated James Brown, president and chief executive of DURECT. “Existing patches used to treat PHN pain are limited by their 12 hour duration, followed by a rest period in which the patient is not to wear a patch for 12 hours. 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,” he added.