




Healthcare Industry News: Lyrica
News Release - May 7, 2010
Meda Acquires Exclusive Rights to flupirtine for fibromyalgia, a Potential USD Billion Indication
STOCKHOLM--(HSMN NewsFeed)--Meda (STO:MEDAA) has acquired exclusive US, Canadian and Japanese rights for the use of flupirtine to treat fibromyalgia from Adeona Pharmaceuticals. As part of the agreement, Meda is taking over full responsibility for development and commercialization of the compound. Flupirtine is currently in phase II development for the patented indication fibromyalgia.There are presently three products approved for this indication in the US – Lyrica, Cymbalta and Savella. Meda estimates the US market for fibromyalgia to be near 1 billion USD at launch of flupirtine. Flupirtine is differentiated from these products in that it employs a unique mode of action.
“We are very pleased to collaborate with Adeona in the development of flupirtine for fibromyalgia, a therapeutic area with a large unmet medical need. Flupirtine has the potential to have better efficacy and safety than current treatments. Additionally, flupirtine has displayed good tolerability during all the years it has been used for the treatment of acute and chronic pain”, says Anders Lönner, CEO Meda.
Meda also believes flupirtine’s neuroprotective properties can be leveraged to treat new indications outside of pain and fibromyalgia, resulting in robust product lifecycle opportunities.
Under the agreement with Adeona, Meda will make an up-front payment of 2,5 MUSD. In addition, Meda will make a milestone payments of 5 MUSD upon the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) acceptance of the New Drug Application (NDA), and 10 MUSD upon NDA Approval by the FDA. Meda will also pay single digit royalties to Adeona.
MEDA AB (publ) is a leading international specialty pharma company. Meda’s products are sold in 120 countries worldwide and the company is represented by its own organizations in 50 countries. The Meda share is listed under Large Cap on the Nasdaq OMX Nordic Stock Exchange in Stockholm. Find out more, visit www.meda.se.
Source: Meda AB
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