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Article: Neuromed Licenses Late-Stage Pain Drug From ALZA For $30M.
- Article from:
- BIOWORLD Today
- Article date:
- November 3, 2009
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 A Thomson Healthcare Company. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Staff Writer
Neuromed Pharmaceuticals' rationale for paying $30 million up front plus milestones and royalties to Johnson & Johnson subsidiary ALZA Corp. in exchange for U.S. rights to OROS Hydromorphone might not be intuitively obvious.
After all, Neuromed is known for its discovery of novel, calcium channel blockers for pain. And while OROS Hydromorphone is a pain drug, it's a late-stage, specialty pharmaceutical product in need of regulatory and marketing support.
Yet the decision makes perfect sense to Neuromed President and CEO Christopher Gallen.
"Our primary driver has always been the calcium channel blockers," Gallen said. Yet ...