Salix, RedHill enter license agreement for solid bowel prep product RHB-106

Under the deal, Salix has secured worldwide exclusive rights to RedHill’s RHB-106 encapsulated formulation for bowel preparation and rights to other purgative developments.

In return, Salix paid RedHill $7m up front and is expected to pay an additional $5m, depending on various milestones.

Following approval of the product, Salix will owe RedHill tiered royalties on net sales, ranging from a low single-digit number up to low double-digits.

As part of the license agreement, both the parties have agreed on potential strategic collaboration with regard to certain other Salix products in specific territories.

Salix president and chief executive officer Carolyn Logan said the company is happy to enter this strategic collaboration with RedHill and to secure what it believed could be the first prescription encapsulated bowel prep product.

"Many patients find the taste and palatability of current bowel prep products to be unacceptable," Logan said.

"We believe the availability of a tasteless solid oral formulation bowel prep, if approved by the FDA, could potentially go a long way in helping to increase patient compliance and to ease patient burden associated with bowel cleansing prior to various medically important abdominal procedures."

RedHill Biopharma CEO Dror Ben-Asher said, "This is the first licensing deal derived from RedHill’s late clinical-stage pipeline, and we are confident that Salix, a leading company in the gastrointestinal field with a proven track record in drug development and commercialization, is the right partner."

RHB-106 is an encapsulated formulation intended for the preparation and cleansing of the gastrointestinal tract before the performance of abdominal procedures, including diagnostic tests, such as colonoscopy, barium enema or virtual colonoscopy, as well as surgical interventions, such as laparotomy.