IDEA AG today announced that it has received two milestone payments under the US licensing agreement with Alpharma Ireland Limited for Diractin® (ketoprofen in Transfersome®, formerly known as IDEA-033). The total payment of $37 million was triggered by IDEA’s reaching clinical as well as regulatory progress with the product.

In September 2007, IDEA AG had signed a Licensing Agreement under which the US rights were out-licensed to Alpharma Ireland and the global development responsibility and commercialisation rights to the product outside the USA were retained. IDEA simultaneously obtained an up-front fee of $60 million, and became eligible for a series of success dependent milestones, warrants in Alpharma Inc. shares, as well as royalties; the Company thus received $60 plus $37 million from its US partner to date, the next payment being due in case of a grant of US patent for Diractin®. A pan-European patent running till the end of 2023 has been issued in 2007. The product has moreover been approved by SwissMedic for the treatment with the highest dose, with an indication of “symptomatic treatment of inflammation and pain of osteoarthritis”. Furthermore, the product is under review by EMEA with a proposed indication of “symptomatic treatment of mild to moderate pain in osteoarthritis of superficial joints like the knee”

Gregor Cevc, IDEA’s founder and CEO, commented: “Almost simultaneous payment of two milestones by Alpharma indicate excellent progress with Diractin® product development. It is also a sign of a smoothly running, mutually beneficial collaboration between partners with a similar vision. Our next commercial step will be the assignment of marketing partner(s) in Europe.”

ENDS

For further information, please contact:

IDEA AG Prof. Gregor Cevc PhD, CEO
Tel.: +49 (172) 8386267

Jens Peter Wartmann, CFA, SVP Finance
Tel.: +49 (173) 5416390

For further technical information see IDEA’s website at www.idea-ag.de

Source: IDEA AG